What Does The Fastest Computer in the World Do?
October 19 2006
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There is no way you could have guessed this, and I was shocked to find this out. This supercomputer -- RIKEN's MDGrape-3 -- is 300 percent faster than the currently accepted world leader IBM Blue/Gene L.
It is so specialized that it cannot be tested with the typical ranking software so this computer is not officially ranked among the fastest computers in the world.
However, it is the first computer to break the petaflop barrier, meaning 1 quadrillion calculations per second. Almost sounds like a Saturday Night Live parody, but it's true.
If you haven't guessed it by now, this computer is not used to design nuclear weapons, predict the weather, do complex quantum physics calculations, astrophysics or launch satellites into space. It is used to design drugs to sell to you! Specifically, it conducts molecular dynamics simulations for pharmaceutical research.
Isn't that nice?
Now, drug companies can come up with even more ways to manipulate and deceive you with magic Band-Aids that, in no way, shape or form, treat the cause of the illness but, in every way, work to greatly increase their bottom-line profits.