It’s capable of solving the most complex questions in science. With it, weather predictions will become lot more accurate. And its launch will give rise to a new kind of global arms race. Meet Titan – the most powerful and fastest supercomputer of this world for open scientific research.
NVIDIA and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) has finally launched Titan, the much anticipated supercomputer that runs with a theoretical peak performance exceeding 20 petaflops, which is equivalent to a quadrillion calculations per second. The supercomputer, which is an updated version of its predecessor Jaguar, is ten times faster and five times more energy efficient than Jaguar. The computer, which will be operated in Tennessee by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has 299,008 CPUs made by AMD. It is a Cray-XK7 system and the first machine to have 18,688 graphics processing units (GPUs) made by NVIDIA. GPUs serve as accelerators to the CPUs; this is the reason due to which Titan provides ten times faster performance output when compared to Jaguar. In addition to being faster and more energy efficient, Titan is of the same size as that of the Jaguar.
The Titan supercomputer will be used by a number of engineers and researchers from academia, industries, and government labs to research into alternative fuels and changing climatic conditions. Titan targets six flagship applications, which include material science, biofuels, climatic changes, nuclear energy, combustion, and astrophysics. The supercomputer will be able to provide answers to problems like changing atmospheric temperatures, chemical compositions, and circulation patterns. Scientists will be able to evaluate materials at the atomic level, which will help in constructing new materials with superior weight, strength, and tensile properties. They will also be able to study certain plants and convert them into biofuels through enzymatic process. The technology can also be used to create new form of fusion energy that would provide safe and clean fuels forms that would burn longer and cleaner. Also, with the help of Titan, researchers can design new ways to optimize processes, fuels, and engines to get a cleaner burning fuel.
Titan will for sure help scientists and engineers achieve breakthrough in technology.
Image credit: Slashgear
