2 ms·
Why would you run a single-threaded algorithm on a supercomputer?
by chrisseaton 4y ago
Why would you run a single-threaded algorithm on a supercomputer?
- belter 4y agoBecause some say they are fastest computers in the world ;-)
- chrisseaton 4y agoI think you're possibly misunderstanding what these supercomputers are for. They just aren't designed for whatever single-threaded workload you personally have, so it's not in scope.
- belter 4y agoIt is clear for me what they are for, and why I would not use it for a single-threaded task. I was trolling a little bit, the people who downvoted my measure of speed :-) because the millions of FLOPS of a supercomputer, will help for parallel tasks but will not be "faster" for a common use case. So fastest computer is one thing, most powerful is another.
- O5vYtytb 4y ago"fastest" is accurate. You can get more computation work done in less time given an appropriate workload. No matter what adjective you use, "fastest" or "powerful", you're always within a context of an intended workload. Your argument is a bit like saying the fastest land speed vehicle isn't really the fastest because you can't go to the grocery store with it.
- stonogo 4y agoYou don't get to call the supercar slow because your driver doesn't know how to change gears.
- _Wintermute 4y agoYou say this, but unfortunately I've encountered a few life-scientists who think their single threaded R code will run faster because they've requested 128 cores and 4 GPUs.