Supercomputer
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A supercomputer is a type of computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. Supercomputers play an important role in the field of computational science, and are u
The Blue Gene/P supercomputer "Intrepid" at Argonne National Laboratory (pictured 2007) runs 164,000 processor cores using normal data center air conditioning, grouped in 40 racks/cabinets connected by a high-speed 3D torus network.
A circuit board from the IBM 7030
The CDC 6600. Behind the system console are two of the "arms" of the plus-sign shaped cabinet with the covers opened. Each arm of the machine had up to four such racks. On the right is the cooling system.
A Cray-1 preserved at the Deutsches Museum
Supercomputer architecture
Videos
Approaches to supercomputer architecture have taken dramatic turns since the earliest systems were introduced in the 1960s. Early supercomputer architectures pioneered by Seymour Cray relied on compac
A SGI Altix supercomputer with 23,000 processors at the CINES facility in France
An IBM HS22 blade
The cylindrical shape of the early Cray computers centralized access, keeping distances short and uniform.
A Blue Gene/L cabinet showing the stacked blades, each holding many processors