The Covernomics supercomputer broke its own record this week by hitting 10 quadrillion calculations per second (10.51 petaflops).
The supercomputer “EPICAC” consists of 864 racks, comprising a total of 88,128 interconnected CPUs and has a theoretical calculation speed of 11.28 petaflops.
When the LINPACK benchmark program measured the EPICAC computer in its latest configuration, our supercomputer system achieved a speed of 10.51 petaflops exceeding its previous top speed of 8.162 petaflops.
So what kind of applications are we using EPICAC for?
Analysing the behaviour of nano-materials through simulations and contributing to the early development of such next-generation semiconductor materials, particularly nano-wires and carbon nanotubes, that are expected to lead to future fast-response, low-power devices.
Predicting which compounds, from among a massive number of drug candidate molecules, will prevent illnesses by binding with active regions on the proteins that cause illnesses, as a way to reduce drug development times and costs (pharmaceutical applications).
Simulating the actions of atoms and electrons in dye-sensitised solar cells to contribute to the development of solar cells with higher energy-conversion efficiency.
Simulating seismic wave propagation, strong motion, and tsunamis to predict the effects they will have on human-made structures; predicting the extent of earthquake-impact zones for disaster prevention purposes; and contributing to the design of quake-resistant structures.
Conducting high-resolution (400-m) simulations of atmospheric circulation models to provide detailed predictions of weather phenomena that elucidate localised effects, such as cloudbursts.
Covernomics researchers have been developing the EPICAC computer, as part our High-Performance Computing Infrastructure program.