Supercomputers are vital tools in scientific research, playing a critical role in tasks such as predicting climate change and discovering new drugs. These machines operate on the same principles as regular computers but have much higher performance capabilities. Unlike desktop or laptop computers, supercomputers process massive data files and perform calculations at incredible speeds. They are the world’s fastest computers, requiring advanced infrastructure to operate, including sophisticated cooling systems.
Supercomputers are more complex than desktop computers, with thousands of CPUs and GPUs as opposed to just one of each in laptops. Their performance is measured in floating point operations per second (FLOPS), with the most powerful supercomputers reaching capacities of one exaFLOP, equivalent to one million billion FLOPS. These machines are known as exascale supercomputers and are at the forefront of scientific research.
The seven most powerful supercomputers in the world today include Frontier, located at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA, with a capacity of 1.2 exaFLOPs; Aurora at the Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois, USA, with 0.59 exaFLOPs; Eagle owned by Microsoft Azure with 0.56 exaFLOPs; Fugaku at Riken Computer Science Center in Japan with 0.44 exaFLOPs; Lumi at CSC Center in Finland with 0.38 exaFLOPs; Leonardo at CINECA Data Center in Italy with 0.23 exaFLOPs; and Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the USA with 0.15 exaFL
