High performance - News, Features, and Slideshows

News

• Tianjin explosion shuts down Chinese supercomputer

  The deadly explosion that rocked the Chinese city of Tianjin has caused the country to shut down a nearby supercomputer, also one of the fastest in the world.

• China clamps down on exports of drones and supercomputers

  China plans to limit exports of advanced drones and supercomputers for national security reasons.

• Obama rolls out initiative to boost US supercomputer capability

  US President Barack Obama has signed an executive order setting up the National Strategic Computing Initiative that will adopt a coordinated strategy involving multiple government agencies, academia and the private sector for the development of high-performance computing systems.

• IBM Watson's next trick: Helping you write better

  IBM's Watson has already proven its mettle in the kitchen and on game shows, but its latest skill set is one that could help us all: making sure our writing conveys what we want it to.

• IBM, Nvidia rev HPC engines in next-gen supercomputer push

  Hard on the heels of the publication of the latest Top 500 ranking of the world's fastest supercomputers, IBM and Nvidia on Monday announced they have teamed up to launch two new supercomputer centers of excellence to develop the next generation of contenders.

• HP and Intel push HPC into new markets

  Hewlett-Packard will use upcoming processor and network technologies from Intel to build new server systems that aim to expand high-performance computing into new markets, including big data workloads at large enterprises.

• China retains supercomputing crown in latest Top 500 ranking

  A supercomputer developed by China's National Defense University remains the fastest publically known computer in the world while the U.S. is close to an historic low in the latest edition of the closely followed Top 500 supercomputer ranking, which was published on Monday.

• Baidu fires researcher involved in AI contest flap

  Chinese search giant Baidu has fired one of its researchers, after the company found he had deliberately broken the rules of an artificial intelligence contest.

• German climate researchers prepare for rising seas of data

  It's nice to have the latest kit, but a supercomputer upgrade is about to bring the German Climate Computing Center, DKRZ, a big problem: a shortage of space.

• After U.S. chip block, China's plan for 100 petaflop supercomputer may get delayed

  The U.S.'s recent denial of Intel chips for China's fastest supercomputer could derail an upgrade to double the machine's processing power.

• US blocks Intel from selling Xeon chips to Chinese supercomputer projects

  U.S. government agencies have stopped Intel from selling microprocessors for China's supercomputers, apparently reflecting concern about their use in nuclear tests.

• US challenges China in supercomputing race with upcoming 180-petaflop system

  To get an edge over China in the supercomputing arms race, the U.S. plans to build a 180-petaflop supercomputer that will be used mainly for scientific research.

• NOAA's next supercomputer will be a Cray-IBM hybrid system

  On Jan. 14, the U.S. upgraded its main weather forecasting model, which subsequently did a very good job in predicting the track of last week's East Coast blizzard. It correctly predicted that heavier snows would be east of New York City, even as the official weather forecast -- based on a mix of computer models -- had the city getting buried in two feet of snow.

• Modular smartphones could be reused as computer clusters

  The promise of modular smartphones like Google's Project Ara is that buyers will be able to upgrade components at will -- and now Finnish company Circular Devices has come up with a use for discarded computing modules.

• Ellison sings a new tune: Oracle hardware is cheapest

  Larry Ellison has opened a new front in his battle with Cisco Systems and EMC, launching new Oracle hardware on Wednesday that he claims will be the cheapest on the market.