Most Energy Efficient Supercomputer: Grape-DR

Supercomputers possess immense computing powers to solve the most complex problems facing mankind, whether it is in mathematics, engineering, astronomy or medicine.

It is not surprising to assume these juggernauts are gobbling up enough electricity to power a small village.

Well, not for the Grape-DR, a supercomputer based in the Department of Information Science at the University of Tokyo. The supercomputer has 64 Intel Core i7-920 processors and an accelerator chip that can achieve 200 gigaflops with a lightbulb’s worth of power.

The Grape-DR may not be the most powerful supercomputer around, but it tops the Little Green500 List of energy-efficient supercomputers, achieving 815.43 MFLOPS per Watt compared to the second place’s 773.38 MFLOPS per watt.

If a supercomputer can achieve this level of energy efficiency, it shouldn’t be too difficult for our personal computers and other household appliances to survive on a lightbulb of energy right?

The day technology firms follow the example of Grape-DR, we are in a stronger position to overcome the peak oil energy crisis and also moderate global warming.

[Gizmodo]

Paul is a geek who shares his thoughts on technology, gadgets, social networks and football in this blog. Stay in touch with his updates by subscribing to the RSS feeds or Email. Thanks for visiting Seventoten and leaving a comment.  To change this standard text, you have to enter some information about your self in the Dashboard -> Users -> Your Profile box.