• Question: What gigahertz does a supercomputer have?

    Asked by matt p to Lee, Hilly, Liz, Tadhg, Yasmin on 15 Jun 2015.
    • Photo: David Hill

      David Hill answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      A good question to ask… and its one that really makes you think about how super computers work! (I’m no expert… but I’m sure one of our fellow engineers is!)

      My understanding is that the cores have a relatively similar processor speed to the ones that are in very top end computers you can buy… if your paid exceptionally handsomely! (So they’re probably out of your reach just now… maybe in a few years ;))

      Their “superpowers” come from the fact they have a LOT of processors! (and A LOT OF COOLING!) – The heat loss on a supercomputer is MASSIVE, and the increased heat results in a lower performance, so the trick is… get lots of processors, and keep them cool! not an easy task!

    • Photo: Lee Margetts

      Lee Margetts answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      Hi @Cheeky_Nando’s – That’s a great question! Some supercomputers are built using the same processors that are in laptops, so the gigahertz is the same as anything you might buy from Amazon or on the High Street. The difference is that supercomputers have many, many of these processors, all wired up together. The largest computer on the planet (that governments let us know about) has 3 million cores and is owned by the Chinese. I’m working on designing software for a computer in 2020 that will be as powerful as 50 million of today’s laptops. Think that’s cool? 20 years ago, the most powerful supercomputer was less powerful than the iPhone 6.

    • Photo: Yasmin Ali

      Yasmin Ali answered on 15 Jun 2015:

      I have never heard of these before… I know a Hertz = 1 cycle per second, and a Gigahertz = 1 billion cycles per second. So I would guess it’s a super fast computer?!!

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