China will press its Supercomputer Skyeye-1, capable of a quadrillion computing operations per second, to support space exploration by the world’s largest radio telescope being built in its Guizhou Province. On completion in 2016, the 500-metre aperture spherical telescope (FAST) will be the world’s largest, overtaking Puerto Rico’s Arecibo Observatory, which is only 300 metres in diameter.
FAST daily peak demand will be above 200 teraflops per second and its first-phase storage demand will be more than 10 petabyte. Skyeye-1, with its quadrillion computing operations per second and high-speed network of 100 gigabytes per second, can easily meet the demands of the telescope.
A supercomputer is a computer with great speed and memory. This kind of computer can do jobs faster than any other computer of its generation.
Performance of a supercomputer is measured in floating point operations per second (FLOPS). As of 2015, there are supercomputers which can perform up-to quadrillions of FLOPS.
Supercomputers are useful in various fields including quantum mechanics, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, molecular modeling.
Top Five Super Computers in the World are,
- Tianhe – 2 – China
- Titan – USA
- Sequoia – USA
- K Computer – Japan
- Mira – USA
Test Your Knowledge
What is the name of the series of supercomputers designed and assembled by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) India?
