Definitions of Supercomputer

A time dependent term which refers to the class of most powerful computer systems world-wide at the time of reference

An extremely fast computer that can perform hundreds of millions of instructions per second

A large mainframe computer; usually reserved for computers with the fastest speeds and largest memory. These computers usually have an architecture that is different from regular mainframes. The main difference lies in the ability to perform vector and/or parallel processing.

The most powerful class of computer. The term was first applied to the Cray-1 computer. Supercomputers can cost in the billions, and have extremely vast capabilities

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer

Supercomputers introduced in the 1960s were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation (CDC), and led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to form his own company, Cray Research He then took over the supercomputer market with his new designs, holding the top spot in supercomputing for 5 years (1985–1990). Cray, himself, never used the word "supercomputer," a little-remembered fact in that he only recognized the word "computer." In the 1980s a large number of smaller competitors entered the market, in a parallel to the creation of the minicomputer market a decade earlier, but many of these disappeared in the mid-1990s "supercomputer market crash". Today, supercomputers are typically one-of-a-kind custom designs produced by "traditional" companies such as IBM and HP, who had purchased many of the 1980s companies to gain their experience, although Cray Inc till specializes in building supercomputers.

Born: 28-Sep1925Birthplace: Chippewa Falls, WIDied: 5-Oct -1996Location of death: Colorado Springs,Cause of death: Car AccidentRemains: Cremated, scattered in the Colorado mountains

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The term supercomputer itself is rather fluid, and today's supercomputer tends to become tomorrow's normal computer. CDC's early machines were simply very fast scalar processors, some ten times the speed of the fastest machines offered by other companies. In the 1970s most supercomputers were dedicated to running a vector processor, and many of the newer players developed their own such processors at a lower price to enter the market. The early and mid-1980s saw machines with a modest number of vector processors working in parallel become the standard. Typical numbers of processors were in the range 4–16. In the later 1980s and 1990s, attention turned from vector processors to massive parallel processing systems with thousands of "ordinary" CPU, some being off the shelf units and others being custom designs. (This is commonly and humorously referred to as the attack of the killer micros in the industry.) Today, parallel designs are based on "off the shelf" server-class microprocessors, such as the PowerPC, Itanium, or x86-64, and most modern supercomputers are now highly-tuned computer clusters using commodity processors combined with custom interconnects.

Scalar Processors

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalar_processor

A vector processor, or array processor, is a CPU design that is able to run mathematical operations on multiple data elements simultaneously. This is in contrast to a scalar processor which handles one element at a time. The vast majority of CPUs are scalar (or close to it). Vector processors were common in the scientific computing area, where they formed the basis of most supercomputers through the 1980s and into the 1990s, but general increases in performance and processor design saw the near disappearance of the vector processor as a general-purpose CPU. IBM Toshiba and Sony announced the Cell processor in 2000 which consists of one scalar processor and eight vector processors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28microprocessor%29

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercomputer

Super Computer timeline

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1942, 1960 1984 and current 2005

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The Current IBM super computer.

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Can we buy old super computers?

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