Andrew's Corner: Supercomputers In a Financial World

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Andrew Jones is back at it again for ZDNet.  This month, he discusses the imminent decisions facing the high performance computing industry in sacrificing performance for long-term sustainment costs, especially in regard to power/cooling.

In the next couple of years, a budget of a few tens of millions of pounds will buy a supercomputer that will consume £10m per year in electricity. Psychologically, that’s a very different sell to whoever is funding the project. Approving a large budget for electricity, with a moderate capital outlay for the supercomputer to consume that electricity, will be problematic, however great the benefits in the business case.

Again, I won’t steal Andrew’s thunder.  His article is an excellent insight into the growing problem of green versus speed.  Read his full article here at ZDNet UK.