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The most powerful computers in the world are Supercomputers. They are used for various scientific and engineering purposes such as weather forecasting, climate modeling and molecular simulations, etc. In this blog, we will try to answer the very confusing question – who invented the supercomputer?
The Timeline of Supercomputers
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The first supercomputers were developed in the year 1940s to 1960s. One of the first was the UNIVAC LARC (Livermore Atomic Research Computer) which was developed for serving the purpose of the United States Atomic Energy Commission. The LARC was capable of performing 2 million floating-point operations per second(FLOPS).
Another early supercomputer was the CDC 6600, which was built by Control Data Corporation. The CDC 6600 was capable of performing at a much higher speed i. e 3 million FLOPS. Seymour Cray, one of the founders of Control Data Corporation, often became the answer to who invented the supercomputer.
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Who is the Father of Supercomputers?
Seymour Cray was an American computer engineer who is known as the father of supercomputers. He is credited with designing several supercomputers including the CDC 6600, the Cray – 1 and the Cray-2.
The Cray-1 was released in 1976 and became the first supercomputer to be able to perform 160 million FLOPS. And the Cray-2 which was released in 1985 was capable of performing 1.3 billion FLOPS.
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Supercomputers Today
Today, supercomputers are capable and advanced to perform trillions of FLOPS. The most powerful supercomputer currently in the world is the Fugaku, which is located in Japan. Fugaku is capable of performing 442petaFLOPS, which is equivalent to 442 quadrillion FLOPS.
What is the difference between Supercomputers and General Purpose Computers?
| Supercomputers | General-purpose Computers |
| These computers have extremely high power processing | These computers rank between moderate to high processing power. |
| Supercomputers are expensive and are valued in millions to billions | General purpose computers are pocket-friendly and are available for everyone at an affordable price. |
| These computers have extensive parallel processing. | These computers have limited parallel processing. |
| They can only be purchased by government agencies or any organization with specific targets. | It can be purchased by the general public and is designed for public use. |
| It has the features like weather forecasting, nuclear stimulation, science research, etc. | It has general features like programming, web browsing, gaming, etc. |
| They are built to solve complex and sophisticated problems in data analysis, engineering and science. | They are built to perform various tasks and applications needed for day-to-day use. |
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Hence, the answer to who invented the supercomputer is, that it was not invented by any one person. Seymour Cray did build the first commercial supercomputers, but the supercomputers were already in existence. Today, these supercomputers have become very powerful and are being used for a wide range of applications. In future, they are believed to be used to solve some of the world’s most challenging and biggest problems like climate change and diseases.
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