Superconducting supercomputers in 5 years

[joeyjojo]

Interesting article I thought I'd share here.

http://www.hpcwire.com/2014/12/09/us-achieve-superconducting-supercomputing-five-years/

The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) has officially commenced a multi-year research effort to develop a superconducting computer as a long-term solution to the power, cooling and space constraints that afflict modern high-performance computing. First revealed in February 2013, when the agency put out a call for proposals, the Cryogenic Computer Complexity (C3) program aims to pave the way for a new generation of superconducting supercomputers that are far more energy efficient than machines based on complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology.

Prototype will run at 10 GHz at a temp of 4 K (-270 C) Should result in supercomputers that are 7-8 times more energy efficient and considerably smaller than the best today.

Not going to end up in consumer hardware though unfortunately, unless you're crazy enough to get a home-cryostat.

 

[Syrellaris]

Holy moly.. 1 quadrillion calculations per second on only 25 kw? it only costs 750 million dollars though.. bargain sale right there!