Yes, supercomputers need low-latency communication between nodes. If a problem is "embarrassingly parallel" (like folding@home, mentioned by sibling comment) th

Yes, supercomputers need low-latency communication between nodes. If a problem is "embarrassingly parallel" (like folding@home, mentioned by sibling comment) then you can use loosely coordinated nodes. Those sorts of problems usually don't run on supercomputers in the first place, since there are cheaper ways to solve them.