Dictionary of Computers - supercomputer

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Fastest, most powerful type of computer, with speeds measured in gigaflops (billions of floating-point calculations per second) or, at the high end, in teraflops (trillions of floating-point calculations per second).

To achieve these extraordinary speeds, supercomputers use many processors working together (often in clusters) and techniques such as cooling processors down to nearly absolute zero temperature, so that their components conduct electricity many times faster than normal. Supercomputers are used in weather forecasting, fluid dynamics, and aerodynamics. Manufacturers include Cray Research, Fujitsu, and NEC.

In November 2003, 248 of the world's 500 most powerful supercomputers were located in the USA, 33 in Japan, and 142 in Europe (of which 36 were in Germany and 33 in the UK). In 2004, the IBM-built ‘BlueGene/L’ became the world's fastest supercomputer, capable of a sustained operational performance of 70.72 teraflops.

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