Types of Super Computers

What are the different types of super computers? Over the past centuries, different types of computers have been developed. These computers range from digital to analogue each performing different functions. These computers have been categorized into mainframe computers, microcomputers (laptops, tablets, personal computers, work stations and hand held PCs among others), mini computers and super computers. Of all these, the micro computers are the most common since they perform basic tasks and their prices are affordable to the average person. Super computers which are of a number of types are the rarest since they perform complex tasks and are usually very expensive. This article will list a few of the many types of super computers that are in the market today.

Titan

Titan is the most recent type of supercomputer which was developed by the company Cray at their Oak ridge national labs. In the year 2012, the top 500 list ranked this super computer as the fastest super-computer in the world with a speed of 17.59 PetaFLOPS. Tis computer was built to undertake a number of scientific projects such as large scale atomic molecular massively simulator code. The titan preceded their earlier super computer by the name jaguar.

IBM Sequoia

This type of super computer was developed by industry heavy weight, IBM. It was deployed in the year 2012 after being developed in the national nuclear security administration. The top 500 list in 2012 stated that this computer had the fastest speed peaking at maximum range 16.32 PFLOPS. This computer was produced for the use in the simulation of nuclear weapons. It replaced an earlier version of super computers by the name of Blue Gene/L

K computer

All the way from Japan, the K computer was developed by the company Fujitsu. Its main use is in the climatic and medical research and disaster prevention and management. The K computer was ranked as the fastest super computer in the year 2011 by the top 500. It is currently installed at the advanced institute for computer science at the Riken University. Its speed is of a Rmax 10.51 PFLOPS.

Tianhe-I

From the year 2010- 2011, the Tianhe-I was ranked as the fastest super computer with a (RMax) of 2.566 PFLOPS. This computer is located at the national supercomputing centre in Tianjin which is a town in China. It cost an estimated 490 million to build. This computer was developed to deal with the petroleum exploration and the design of aircrafts.

Jaguar

This super computer came before the titan. It was developed by the same company, Cray at the Oak Ridge national Library in Tennessee. The computer was the fastest super computer in the world in the year 2009 with a maximum range of 1.750 teraFLOPS. This computer was designed to handle some of the most common problems of this century which include: climate modeling, seismology, renewable energy and fusion among others.

IBM Roadrunner

The computer giant, IBM completed this project in the year 2008. It was built in the Los Angeles national laboratory. It became the fastest computer in the world in the year 2008 according to the top 500. The computer has a maximum range of 1.026 petaflops. It was built for the use in the modeling of the decay of United States nuclear arsenal. This type of super computer had a reputation in its energy efficiency. It was ranked as the fourth most energy efficient computer in the world in 2009.