What Applications Do Supercomputers Have?

Supercomputers are primarily engineered to tackle a multitude of intricate calculations. Although each unit may serve a different purpose, they all aim to resolve specific challenges. The financial investment required to establish such systems typically starts at tens of millions of dollars, limiting access to the world's largest corporations that can effectively utilize this significant power. For instance, Fugaku is composed of 158,976 processors, each featuring 48 cores running at 2.2 GHz. Fujitsu designed this machine independently, without relying on major companies like Intel, AMD, or NVIDIA. Unlike IBM's supercomputers, which often include NVIDIA graphics chips, Fugaku operates without dedicated GPUs, and its overall setup cost approached 1 billion dollars.

Today's supercomputers are categorized as fourth-generation machines utilizing highly integrated circuits. They possess the ability to perform diverse tasks by efficiently allocating available computational resources. Operating such devices necessitates specially designed, air-conditioned facilities, as all processors and potential graphics chips require effective cooling systems. This creates an enormous energy demand, which is not limitless, thus constraining the expansion of such technology.

It's important to recognize that comparing modern personal computers to supercomputers is futile. For example, the tenth most powerful supercomputer, the Voyager-EUS2, achieves a performance of 30 PFLOPS, while the Xbox Series X offers merely 12 TFLOPS, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 graphics card provides just under 30 TFLOPS. To simplify, 1000 TFLOPS equate to one petaflop, highlighting the staggering capabilities of these machines. Supercomputers are employed in various fields, including artificial intelligence research, medical advancements, space exploration, and complex mathematical, physical, and chemical calculations aimed at developing effective treatments for severe diseases.

Interestingly, the fastest supercomputers from less than three decades ago operated at 7.2 TFLOPS, significantly lower than the PlayStation 5's 10.28 TFLOPS. This rapid technological advancement demonstrates the exponential increase in computational power achieved in a relatively short time. Looking ahead, we anticipate entering an unprecedented era of quantum computing, capable of executing truly remarkable tasks. The primary distinction between classical and quantum systems lies in information processing, which relies on qubits instead of traditional bits. Quantum operations can be extraordinarily swift, as quantum particles can be "teleported" across distances while retaining identical information.

The design and construction of quantum computers, however, are far more complex than those of conventional machines. Although we are still on a journey before witnessing robust quantum supercomputers, their emergence is inevitable. For instance, a quantum processor developed in China has demonstrated a speed nearly 60,000 times that of the fastest supercomputers in the global TOP10 list, despite utilizing only 66 efficient qubits. In a recent test, this quantum system solved a "sampling" problem in just over 80 minutes, a task that would have taken the fastest Chinese supercomputer—operating at 93 PFLOPS—approximately 8 years. The future holds immense potential for this technology, but we must also consider the challenges of producing and maintaining such systems.

While it is unlikely that quantum computers will find their way into our homes anytime soon, we can expect significant advancements within the next 20 to 30 years. Locked within vast facilities, they will tackle the most formidable challenges in fields like medicine, physics, and chemistry. As we approach this future, I invite you to share your thoughts in the comments on what you envision for the next two decades!

The first video, "Buying a Supercomputer is Stupid," discusses the misconceptions surrounding supercomputers and highlights the factors that make them impractical for everyday use.

The second video, "Please Stop Doing This to Old Computers!" emphasizes the importance of properly utilizing and maintaining older computer systems, rather than discarding them hastily.