Exploring Supercomputers: History, Components & Applications in Detail

This report provides a comprehensive overview of supercomputers, tracing their history from early inventions to modern petaflop-level machines. It details the key components of supercomputers, including processors, hard drives, and their integration of grid and parallel processing principles. The report addresses the high costs and time investments associated with supercomputer construction and usage. A significant portion of the report focuses on the applications of supercomputers in population genetics, highlighting their role in analyzing large genomic datasets and understanding the genetic history and organization of populations. It also discusses the challenges faced in using supercomputing for complex genomic data analysis, such as the need for advanced bioinformatics algorithms and large RAM requirements. Finally, the report explores future trends in supercomputing, including memory-driven computing and its potential impact on various industries, weather prediction, and personalized medicine. This document is available on Desklib, a platform offering study tools and resources for students.

Running head: SUPERCOMPUTERS
Supercomputers
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author’s note

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................2
2. General Discussion on Supercomputers.................................................................................2
2.1 History of Supercomputers..............................................................................................2
2.2 The Major Components of Supercomputers....................................................................3
2.3 Issue of Cost and Time of Supercomputers.....................................................................4
3. Applications of Supercomputers............................................................................................4
3.1 A Brief Discussion on Population Genetics.....................................................................4
3.2 Use of Supercomputers in Population Genetics...................................................................4
3.3 Challenges faced during the Use of Supercomputing in Population Genetics.................5
4. Future Trends of Supercomputers..........................................................................................5
5. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................6
6. References..............................................................................................................................8

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1. Introduction
A supercomputer is one type of computer, which is able to perform the current higher
rate of operations within computers. The use of supercomputers is used for higher level of
operations when compared to the general computers. The past use of supercomputers have
been majorly used for their applications in science and engineering (Luu et al., 2015). The
supercomputers were used in order to handle various large form of database systems or to
perform greater level of computational tasks. Advances in the field of GPUs and multi-core
processors have enabled the personal use of desktops and other computing devices.
There are some publicized supercomputers, which are able to operate at fast speeds as
compared to other computers. This term is mostly applied to the slower computers. The most
powerful computers and the largest computers are multiple computers, which are able to
perform parallel processing (Hord, 2018). The supercomputers have a major role to play
within the computational field. These are used for performing a wide range of computational
tasks that would include weather forecasting, gas and oil exploration, molecular modelling
and climate research activities.
2. General Discussion on Supercomputers
2.1 History of Supercomputers
The supercomputers were first invented in the early 1920s in the United States with
the invention of IBM tabulators at the University of Columbia. This was supplemented with a
series of computers at the Control Data Corporation (CDC) that was designed by Seymour
Cray. This was meant for the purpose of using innovative designs and parallelism for the
purpose of achieving superior peak of computational power (Cook & Gupta, 2015). The CDC
6600, which was released in 1964 is primarily considered as the first supercomputer. Some of

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the earlier form of computers such as the 1954 IBM NORC, 1960 UNIVAC LARC, Atlas
and the IBM 7030 Stretch were regarded as the earliest form of supercomputers.
Although the supercomputers, which were invented during the 1980s made use of few
processors, the computers during the 1990s had thousands of processors. They mostly
appeared within Japan and United States and thus had set newer form of computational
records. There was a major progress during the 21st century as the supercomputers had 60,000
processors that would almost reach up to the petaflop levels of performance (Anton & Boris,
2016).
2.2 The Major Components of Supercomputers
The processors within the supercomputers are mostly made up of silicon. The doping
materials are mainly diffused onto the silicon in the form of transistors, capacitors, resistors
and wires. The hard drive of the supercomputers is mainly composed of platinum and
ruthenium. The supercomputers are mainly designed in order for their use in various
organizations and enterprises that would require a massive power of computing (Wolfer,
2015). A supercomputer integrates the operational and architectural principles from the grid
and parallel processing. In these kinds of processing, a process is concurrently being executed
on several processors or they are distributed among the several processors. Though many of
the supercomputers mainly comprise of thousands of processors, they would also contain
most of the components of a characteristic computer that would include some form of
peripheral devices, operating system, connectors and several applications.
Unlike the minicomputers and mainframe computers, the supercomputers are mainly
used for performing heavy tasks such as forecasting of weather, prediction of earthquakes and
various complex form of calculations. Supercomputers also help in the government sector
such as passing of information through telephone lines, e-mails or radio waves and many

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other functions. The supercomputer is mainly associated with the fastest computer that is
available or that would have a large size (Okrepilov et al., 2015).
2.3 Issue of Cost and Time of Supercomputers
The construction of supercomputers is an expensive task. Transporting of the machine
would take several years. The use of supercomputers could be expensive. The users of
supercomputers are mainly charged based on the time of usage of the system that would be
expressed in the number of processor seconds (Hart et al., 2014).
3. Applications of Supercomputers
Supercomputers play a major role in the success of the field of population genetics.
This is one of the application of supercomputers. This field has mostly became essential
within the foundation of the modern form of evolutionary synthesis.
3.1 A Brief Discussion on Population Genetics
Population Genetics could be defined as the study of interaction and frequency based
on genes and alleles within population. This study would also be able to define the allele
frequency distribution changes as a result of the processes of evolution that includes
mutation, genetic drift and natural selection. In the last decades, there has been several major
changes within the field of population genetics (Dumancas, 2015). This has mainly been
possible with the latest form of developments based on the technologies of DNA sequencing.
The present and the future form of challenges within the particular field in both analytical
theory and computer methodology are mainly meant to develop techniques and models for
extracting the most possible information from DNA datasets.
3.2 Use of Supercomputers in Population Genetics
Supercomputers have played a major role within the success of population genetics.
This has been made possible with the large genomic datasets, which have recently emerged

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with the help of sophisticated supercomputers (Yang et al., 2014). These are necessary in
order to discover the genetics of several different species. At a point of time when the
information of population density would be provided in the future, the supercomputers would
be able to perform many type of complex computations. Supercomputers are also used for the
analysis of different sets of data within the genetic based on human population.
The use of supercomputing within the industry of population genetics. The use of this
form of computing has evolved over the last couple of years (Gonzalez-Garay, 2014). Several
number of computational tools have evolved over the years and have hence facilitated the
various forms of advances within the field of research in population genetics. The various
centres of supercomputing that are situated all over the world facilitates the deep analysis of
large datasets based on genetics in order to understand the history of genetics and the
organization of different populations of organism.
3.3 Challenges faced during the Use of Supercomputing in Population Genetics
The large and complex sets of genomic data have presented various kinds of problems
within the population genetics. These problems were mainly obtained within the statistical
inferences. With the several large sets of data volumes that are obtained from extensive
research, there would be a high need for the proper form of development of new form of
algorithms related to bioinformatics (Pinel, Dorronsoro & Bouvry, 2013). The community of
bioinformatics have developed several advanced form of algorithms for the proper analysis of
generic based data that would be based on symmetric multiprocessing systems of computing,
which would require large amounts of RAM within the supercomputers.
4. Future Trends of Supercomputers
Supercomputing has played a major role within several industrial fields such as
aeronautics, civil engineering, electronic engineering and also within the field of

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pharmaceutics. The supercomputers are regarded as those form of computers that have higher
performance of magnitude. In the trends of the future, some of the much needed architectures
would be implemented within the systems of supercomputers. There is a high need for the
government to make sure that the suppliers would be able to meet with the national needs.
The future of supercomputing could be able to define the way of conceive of big data within
the various organizations and the way of processing of complex calculations and data. The
future of supercomputers might contain 160 terabytes of memory and a newer form of
architecture, which would be able to break the previous systems that were created with the
help of processor based supercomputers (Brodtkorb, Hagen & Sætra, 2013).
The next advancement within the future trends of supercomputing could be based on
memory-driven computing that would be able to move the industry forward. They would be
able to enhance the future of supercomputer technology. The unveiled architecture could also
be applied to every category of computing that could range from intelligent edge device till
the supercomputers.
The future trends of supercomputers could also be helpful in calculating the
appropriate medical treatments on the personalized needs of the users. The supercomputers
could also be able to predict the extreme events of weather such as predictions of weather,
hurricanes and also it would be able to perform them high level of acute accuracy, effective
and quicker form of responses.
5. Conclusion
Based on the discussion from the above discussion, it could be concluded that the use
of supercomputing has shown enormous growth within the computing of various
organizations in several countries. The technology has been if great importance because it
was responsible for major form of advances within several crucial aspects. Supercomputing

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has also played major roles within national defences and also within scientific discoveries.
The ability for the addressing of crucial engineering and security challenges would mostly
depend on continued form of investments within the area of supercomputing.

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6. References
Anton, R., & Boris, R. (2016, September). An information-theoretic approach to performance
evaluation of supercomputers. In Problems of Redundancy in Information and
Control Systems (REDUNDANCY), 2016 XV International Symposium (pp. 125-128).
IEEE.
Brodtkorb, A. R., Hagen, T. R., & Sætra, M. L. (2013). Graphics processing unit (GPU)
programming strategies and trends in GPU computing. Journal of Parallel and
Distributed Computing, 73(1), 4-13.
Cook, J. S., & Gupta, N. (2015). History of Supercomputing and Supercomputer Centers.
In Research and Applications in Global Supercomputing (pp. 33-55). IGI Global.
Dumancas, G. G. (2015). Applications of Supercomputers in Population Genetics.
In Research and Applications in Global Supercomputing (pp. 176-200). IGI Global.
Gonzalez-Garay, M. L. (2014). The road from next-generation sequencing to personalized
medicine. Personalized medicine, 11(5), 523-544.
Hart, A., Richardson, H., Doleschal, J., Ilsche, T., Bielert, M., & Kappel, M. (2014). User-
level power monitoring and application performance on cray xc30
supercomputers. Proceedings of the Cray User Group (CUG).
Hord, R. M. (2018). Parallel Supercomputing in MIMD Architectures: 0. CRC press.
Luu, H., Winslett, M., Gropp, W., Ross, R., Carns, P., Harms, K., ... & Yao, Y. (2015, June).
A multiplatform study of I/O behavior on petascale supercomputers. In Proceedings
of the 24th International Symposium on High-Performance Parallel and Distributed
Computing (pp. 33-44). ACM.

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Okrepilov, V. V., Makarov, V. L., Bakhtizin, A. R., & Kuzmina, S. N. (2015). Application of
supercomputer technologies for simulation of socio-economic systems. R-Economy.
2015. Vol. 1. Iss. 2, 1(2), 340-350.
Pinel, F., Dorronsoro, B., & Bouvry, P. (2013). Solving very large instances of the scheduling
of independent tasks problem on the GPU. Journal of Parallel and Distributed
Computing, 73(1), 101-110.
Wolfer, J. (2015, March). A heterogeneous supercomputer model for high-performance
parallel computing pedagogy. In Global Engineering Education Conference
(EDUCON), 2015 IEEE (pp. 799-805). IEEE.
Yang, C., Li, H., Rezgui, Y., Petri, I., Yuce, B., Chen, B., & Jayan, B. (2014). High
throughput computing based distributed genetic algorithm for building energy
consumption optimization. Energy and Buildings, 76, 92-101.