The first super computer was invented in early 60’s which was first installed at Manchester University. Fewer power desktops are being used at homes. A computer is a device for general purpose to carry a set of arithmetic and logical operations. A computer can solve more than one kind of problem at a time. A computer consists of two unit’s central processing unit (CPU) and memory. All the arithmetical and logical operations are carried through CPU central processing unit, and all information is stored in memory. Today’s supercomputers are measured in petaFLOPS. A processing speed of the computer is million and billion. According to the senior scientist at Beijing computing center, the computer that is considered fast now will be considered as garbage in another five years because of an invention of new and faster supercomputers. They claim that “The supercomputer bubble is worse than a real estate bubble because a computer no matter how faster is today, will become garbage in next five years.” Nations are spending billions of dollars for the advancement in technology and build a faster supercomputer. Now we are going to discuss the top ten most expensive supercomputers of the world.
Top ten most expensive supercomputers in the world:
10. IBM Roadrunner (us):
Roadrunner was built by IBM in Los Alamos National Laboratory in MAXICO, USA. It became operational in 2008 with the speed of 1.7 petaFLOPS. According to Supermicro green500 list, it is the fourth most powerful supercomputer in the world. The purpose of this supercomputer was to decay US nuclear arsenal. The price of the computer is about $130 million. Afterward, a new computer in a smaller size was introduced by the company known as Cielo. Nations are spending millions of dollars on an advancement of technology.
9. Vulcan Blue Gene/Q (US):
Vulcan supercomputer was invented by IBM for Doe, and it was built in Lawrence Laboratory in Livermore, California. The speed of the computer is about 5 petaFLOPS, and it is considered to be the ninth fastest computer in the world. This computer became usable in 2013. This computer is used in Doe and National nuclear security administration (NNSC) missions. The price of the computer is about $100, Million. This computer is much expensive and not commonly used.
8. Supermuc Muc (Germany):
Supermuc Muc is considered to be the fourteenth fastest computer in the world. By the estimate of 2013 it was considered to be the tenth faster computer of the world. With the advancement technology it surpassed. None the less it is considered to be the second fastest computer in Germany. This computer uses hot water to cool the computer. The design cuts cooling electricity by 40%. The price of the computer is about $111 million. It is a very expensive computer and not commonly used. It is used for special purposes.
7. Trinity (US):
It is a more power full super computer but considered to be the most expensive supercomputer. The price of the computer is about $174 million. It was built by company Cray and named as Cray XC supercomputer. The computer is used in National nuclear security administration (NNSC). Trinity is used to keep American nuclear arsenal safe and secure. Trinity computer is the joint effort of Sandia National Laboratory and Los Almos National Laboratory. This computer is not commonly used.
6. Sequoia Blue Gene/Q (US):
Sequoia was built by IBM for the purpose of NNSA. It was invented in June 2012 at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Soon it became the fastest computer in the world. The speed of the computer is about 20 PELOPS, and it can almost perform 20 trillion calculations per second. The price of the computer is about $250 million. It is the most expensive computer. The computer is only used for special purposes. The computer can be used to study astrology, energy and climate changes.
5. ASC Purple and Blue Gene/L (US):
These two supercomputers came as a pack. The computer was invented by IBM in 2002. The computer was firstly installed in 2005 at Lawrence Livermore lab. It was announced by Doe that the system is about 1.5 times faster than all other 500 machines invented. The price of the computer is about $290 million. The computer is much expensive and used only for specific purposes.
4. Sierra and summit (US):
IBM will help America to build the fastest supercomputer in the world. The computer is used for scientific research, economic and national security. Sierra computer was first installed at Lawrence Livermore laboratory with the speed of about 300 PELOPS. The price of the computer is about $325million. The computer is considered to be most expensive. This is not commonly used, but the computer is used for special purposes.
3. Tianhe-2 (China):
China Tianhe-2 is considered to be the fastest computer in the world. Tianhe-2 was invented by almost 1300 scientists and engineers, and the computer is located at National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou. It was built by the China National University of Defense Technology (NUDT). Tianhe-2 can perform almost 33860 calculations per second equivalent to 1000 years of difficult sums. The price of the computer is about $390 million. The computer is much expensive.
2. Earth Simulator (Japan):
The Earth Stimulator was developed by the Japanese government in 1997. It was the project of about 60 million yen and $500 million in today’s economy. Earth Stimulator was completed in 2002. The main purpose of the development of the computer was for Japan’s Aerospace Exploration Agency. Earth Simulator was the fastest computer in the world from 2002 to 2004. The price of the computer is about $500 million. It is the most expensive than all the computers discussed above. It is not commonly used.
1. Fujitsu K ( Japan):
Fujitsu K is the most expensive supercomputer in the world. The price of the computer is about $1.2 million. K cost almost 10 million to operate per year. It is almost equivalent to 10000 suburban homes and linked to one million desktops. K is 60 times faster than Earth simulator. It is a very expensive computer and cost much to operate so this is not commonly used.
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List of Most Expensive Computers in the World
| Sr.No. | Names | Header 3 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fujitsu K (Japan) | Row:1 Cell:3 |
| 2 | Earth Simulator (Japan) | Row:2 Cell:3 |
| 3 | Tianhe-2 (China) | Row:3 Cell:3 |
| 4 | Sierra and summit (US) | Row:4 Cell:3 |
| 5 | ASC purple and Blue Gene/L (US) | Row:5 Cell:3 |
| 6 | Sequoia blue Gene/Q (US) | Row:6 Cell:3 |
| 7 | Trinity (US) | Row:7 Cell:3 |
| 8 | Supermuc MUC (Germany) | Row:8 Cell:3 |
| 9 | Vulcan blue gene/Q (US) | Row:9 Cell:3 |
| 10 | IBM roadrunner (US) | Row:10 Cell:3 |
Conclusion:
We have discussed above the top ten most expensive supercomputers in the world. With the advancement of the technology world has progressed in every field. Computers can perform millions and trillions of calculations within seconds. It has reduced the human efforts and work can be done effectively and efficiently. Scientists put efforts in making the world faster computer. Now they are trying to make a human intelligence computer for the efficiency of work.