But supercomputer designers have far bigger machines in their dreams. Last year, US president Barack Obama signed an order that will, by 2025, provide the US with something 30 times as powerful as Tianhe-2. Of course, there is the small matter of power; assuming a linear relationship, that device could require 0.5GW.
So it's no surprise to find that researchers are looking for ways to build supercomputers that are more power efficient. In the 12 April 2016 issue of New Electronics, we reported on how optical computing technology could play a vital role. Now, scientists from the University of Cambridge are looking to superconducting spintronics. Should such a device be created, say the scientists, it would be capable of processing 'vast amounts' of data at a 'fraction' of today's machines. And that is a goal which should be welcomedCan superconducting spintronics cut computing’s power bill?
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The word 'supercomputer' doesn't do justice to these behemoths of computing technology.Let's take, as an example, what is named in the TOP500 ranking as the fastest such device. Tianhe-2, based in China, is said to feature more than 3million cores in a mix of Intel Xeon processors. Capable of a peak computing performance of 54.9PFLOPS, the machine draws 17.8MW.
