Why the Global Super Championship is easy to master: The ranking is only more than the computational power

Just a few weeks ago, the 37th global supercomputer TOP500 Rankings, our national defense Hkust developed a "Tianhe" for the first time to get "champion", ranked first, so that people leap. But unexpectedly, soon the first position was replaced by the Japanese super computer "Beijing".

Why is the winner of the "Tianhe" number taken away by the Japanese computer? What does the master of the championship say? With all the curiosity about supercomputers, the IT Times reporter walks into the Shanghai Supercomputing Center in Zhangjiang.

The ranking is only more than the computational power

What are the criteria used to measure the ranking of supercomputers? Shanghai Super Computing Center Deputy Director Li Genguo told reporters that the current use of the standard is Linpack (linear system software package), in layman's terms, is to see who solves a single n-times dense linear algebraic equations set faster, in order to evaluate the performance of High-performance computer's floating point.

In fact, the international TOP500 rankings, is only the speed of computer games, but to judge a country's overall computer strength, can not only see the champions one indicator. It is not surprising that the Japanese supercomputer "Beijing" won the championship. In the history of the country's super level is very strong, from June 2002 to 2004, the Japanese supercomputer "Earth Simulator" has won the TOP500 Laurel 5 consecutive times.

In this list, the reporter found that China's excess volume from the last 41 units up to 62 units, after the United States, ranked second. Although this is a gratifying phenomenon, but Li Genguo that China's supercomputer and foreign compared with a certain defect. "One is that most supercomputers in China now use the GPU (graphics processor) to accelerate the core, although the rankings have been upgraded, the GPU is limited to the acceleration of some programs, and the second is that China can build a lot of supercomputers, but not the core of CPU technology, large-scale use of the Intel chip Third, the application of the scope of the calculation should be more extensive, the United States to use the calculation of the information processing, such as the calculation of the operation of the simulation economy, and let the super calculate to price for the product, China's application in these areas is very small. "Li Genguo thinks.

"The ranking of supercomputers has changed a lot, and the super computer, which is usually ranked at 250, will get out of the next competition." "Li Genguo said.

Witness the world's 40th supercomputer

From 1946, the world's first computer was born, to China's first supercomputer "Galaxy One" in 1983, and then to the later "Divinity", "Dawn", each generation of supercomputers the biggest progress is its computational capacity greatly improved, from the initial 5,000 times/sec, by June 16, 2011, the 37th time the global supercomputer TOP500 rankings were at the top of 8.77363e+15/sec, supercomputers are now operating at 100 million times faster than initially.

Speaking of super computer, we all will think of it fast speed, particularly powerful performance. And the reporter in Shanghai Supercomputing Center room also saw in the world's 40th place "Rubik's Cube" (That is, "Dawn 5000A"), this is China's first million supercomputers, operating speed up to 200 trillion times/sec. Across the glass doors of the working area, the reporter saw the "Rubik's Cube" Black and grey cabinet, like neatly arranged armored samurai, covered with high-density blade motherboard and the world based on the motherboard of the first 7U height of 10 pieces 4 Road 4 Core 64-bit CPU industrial Standard blade server, staff are on the "Rubik's Cube" 24 Hours of monitoring.

Who is using supercomputers?

In the room the reporter saw the "Rubik's Cube", is a row of cabinets, then its host, monitor, keyboard and mouse where? Staff told reporters that users can log on through the network terminal to use supercomputers, these terminals can be PC, workstation, or can be a personal notebook computer, these become supercomputers "keyboard mouse."

Who is using this mysterious "Rubik's Cube"? "The computer room hanging on the LCD display is the ' Rubik's Cube ' current use, different colors of small squares representing different units, now has 350 or so to apply for the use of the Rubik's Cube account, if there is a new task group to use Rubik's Cube, to wait 1-2 hours, Compared to the beginning, many users have to wait one months to queue up on the machine, which has been shortened a lot. Now most of the use of Rubik's Cube is the University, research Institute, Engineering Design Institute, applications are also related to nano-materials, biomedicine, aerospace and other more than 20 areas. Li Genguo told reporters.

"Super power consumption" or up to 1 per thousand in Shanghai

The supercomputer is "fast", depending on its "inner" technology, and the power to support the "heart" for continuous high-speed work is powerful. The TOP500 rankings, there are 29 over the power consumption of more than 1MW (MW), performance ranked 1th "Beijing", power consumption is the largest, 9.89MW, supercomputer power consumption is showing a gradual rise in the situation. Li Genguo told reporters, Japan even for "Beijing" dedicated to the construction of power stations and computer rooms.

What about the power consumption of supercomputers? "' Tianhe ' power consumption is 6,000-kilowatt, the annual cost of up to 50 million yuan, the Shanghai Super Center is currently using the ' Rubik's Cube ' power is 1000-kilowatt, the annual electricity at 12 million yuan." China is planning to develop a 50000 trillion-time supercomputer, its power consumption is expected to be 20,000-kilowatt, equivalent to 1 per thousand of the total electricity consumption in Shanghai. Li Genguo to the reporter to calculate a sum.

In the current use of the Super computer rating standard Linpack, does not take into account the power consumption of supercomputers, only to see the operating speed of the super. Now, however, the power of supercomputers has also been judged. The supercomputer Green500 list focuses on the performance of supercomputers in energy efficiency, so that people pay more attention to energy saving and emission reduction. "If a supercomputer consumes more than 10,000-kilowatt power, it must be controlled." "Li Genguo thinks.

TIPS

The "super" side of us.

1. Weather forecast: People are not as good as the super

Before the supercomputer was born, to know about the weather changes, specialists were required to decorate satellites, detectors, and so on, to capture the changes in the atmosphere, and to judge by their own experience.

And the super calculation can directly simulate the atmosphere change, combined with the data sent back by other monitoring instruments, automatic analysis of the changeable, improve the accuracy of the weather forecast. The words "local rain", as we often hear, will fade away with the help of a super count, as the calculation of which area is going to rain is very accurate.

2. Car/Aircraft design: safety and comfort to exceed the control

Automotive design requires a comprehensive consideration of air fluid dynamics, fuel consumption, structural design, anti-collision, passenger comfort, and noise and many other factors, so the design of a good car, must rely on supercomputers.

For all the security concerns that are of greatest concern to all, in the past, when designing cars, carmakers usually need to use more than 100 cars to carry out collision tests, and now use the 7~8 to model, modify, design, manufacturers only use a car to carry out the real car experiment, but also greatly shorten the new car's off-line cycle, Reduced from the original average of 36 months to 12 months. And so is the design and manufacture of aircraft.

3. Municipal engineering: It knows the unbearable weight of the bridge

Reporters in the computer Science and Technology museum saw a bridge model, the bottom of the bridge also has light rail. Staff told reporters that the super calculation can be calculated when the light rail through the bridge stress changes; even when two rows of trains pass through the bridge at the same time, the bridge is able to carry it to ensure the safety of bridges and passing vehicles.

In fact, the bridge's endurance and safety are calculated by the mechanics of the principle, such as in extreme weather conditions, the endurance of the bridge, when the impact of a large tonnage of ships, the bridge will collapse.

(Responsible editor: admin)