The Most Powerful Supercomputer in The World. Riken Research Lab and Fujitsu developed the Fugaku supercomputer. In June 2020, Fugaku dethroned IBM’s Summit supercomputer as the most powerful in the world. This supercomputer broke the record for computations per second (TeraFLOPS) and various other supercomputer metrics. Fugaku offers 442,000 TeraFLOPS of performance while a Playstation 5 offers 10.2 TeraFLOPS.
100 Mind-Blowing Supercomputer Facts
IBM 305 RAMAC: The Supercomputer That Weighed A Ton (Literally). In September 1956, IBM announced and released the IBM 305 RAMAC supercomputer. It was the first supercomputer to use magnetic disk storage. More than 1,000 systems were built and sold before the 305 RAMAC became obsolete in 1962. The machine weighed more than a ton and required multiple people to set up or move. IBM charged companies and organisations $3,200 per month for the IBM 305. That amounts to nearly $30,000 in today’s dollars. For that reason, government organisations and large corporations were the main customers of IBM’s supercomputer. Subsequent supercomputers were released by IBM. The company releases a new supercomputer every few years on average.
The government used PlayStation 3’s… but not for gaming. In 2010, the United States Air Force used 1,760 PlayStation 3 consoles to build a supercomputer for the Department of Defence. They used PS3s because it was more cost-efficient and “green.”
The Chinese version of Ubuntu is used for running the world’s fastest supercomputer.
A supercomputer identified 77 chemicals that could prevent the coronavirus from spreading, which could help doctors mitigate infection and develop effective treatment plans.