New Supercomputer Expected to Perform Two Quintillions – Two Billion Billion – Operations Per Second

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Scientists in Illinois are developing an “exascale” supercomputer the size of two tennis courts that they expect will become the first machine of its kind to perform two quintillion – two billion billion – operations per second, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Existing “exascale” supercomputers can already carry out a quintillion – one billion billion – operations per second.

Called Aurora, the new gigantic machine weighs 600 tons and was built by Intel and Hewlett Packard Enterprise; it is housed at Chicago’s Energy Department’s Argonne National Laboratory, WSJ said. The supercomputer is being turned on slowly, rack by rack.

Aurora has 60,000 graphics processing units, or GPUs, that will provide it with such an advanced level of extra memory it will be able to address problems no other machine can, WSJ reports. The machine was recently used to screen 22 billion drug molecules an hour, accelerating potential drug discovery, WSJ said.

According to WSJ, Aurora will be able to analyze connections inside the brain and help design batteries that charge faster and last longer. It will also be matched with cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology for use in cancer research, nuclear fusion, vaccines, climate change, encryption, and cosmology among other fields of science.

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