What Makes a Supercomputer?
Extract from Chapter 1 of Intro to Supercomputing and HPC
In much the same way a Ferrari Enzo or Lamborghini Countach is still a supercar even though it can be outrun by an electric family SUV now, the Cray 1 is still a supercomputer even though by today’s standards its 160MFLOP performance falls far short of the iPhone in your pocket. What makes a supercomputer, much like what makes a supercar is more than just performance. Conversely, just because your iPad can outperform the Cray-1 it is no more a supercomputer than a Tesla beating a Ferrari Testarossa on the ¼ mile makes it a supercar.
Excerpt taken from “An Introduction to Supercomputing and HPC”
Chapter 1: The Limits of One
An introduction to supercomputing and high performance computing broken down into a series of posts, perhaps eventually compiled into a book in the future depending on how well this little experiment goes. This first chapter attempts to define what a supercomputer or HPC is.
