How do you calculate Pi? Build a supercomputer. The Mountains of Pi, a New Yorker profile of the mathematician (sic) the Chudnovsky brothers. Warning: the article is from 1992, and internet is missing its definite article. (Previously)
posted by OmieWise on Sep 9, 2010 - 31 comments

Lots of people remember the Cray-1A. And how could you not, it was a supercomputer with built-in seats. But Chris Fenton has done more than just reminisce, he he built his own 1/10 scale Cray-1A. It's not just a model, it actually runs Cray software. The only problem is there doesn't seem to be much Cray software on the net, so if you have some let him know.
posted by tommasz on Aug 31, 2010 - 66 comments

In the recently concluded World Chess Championship, defending champion Viswanathan Anand successfully defended his title against Veselin Topalov. Now news has come out after the match that Topalov had prepared for the match with the help of an IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer capable of 1 petaFLOPS. Instead of a supercomputer cluster, Anand instead had the help of a human cluster in the form of two ex-World Chess Champions and one likely future World Chess Champion. [more inside]
posted by gyc on May 21, 2010 - 15 comments

Out of the Blue: "Can a thinking, remembering, decision-making, biologically accurate brain be built from a supercomputer?"
posted by homunculus on Mar 3, 2008 - 38 comments

[scifilter] Scientists use a supercomputer to simulate a biological neural structure "as big and as complex as half of a mouse brain"
posted by delmoi on Apr 29, 2007 - 51 comments

Supercomputer-on-a-chip microprocessor design revealed on heels of report that third generation DVDs may implement an holographic storage technique.
posted by mcgraw on Feb 7, 2005 - 10 comments

A cluster of apple G5 machines at Virginia Tech ranked number 3 in the Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers. Apparently, the total cost of the system is around $5 million dollars while the two machines that beat it cost more than $300 million.
posted by geir on Nov 19, 2003 - 16 comments

The Playstation 2, just like the G4 is considered a Supercomputer too. It's nice to know that hostile nations won't rip apart the system after they get gunned down in Metal Gear Solid.
posted by Cavatica on Mar 9, 2000 - 0 comments