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El Capitan: New supercomputer is the fastest

(spectrum.ieee.org)
93 points rbanffy | 4 comments | 19 Nov 24 20:52 UTC | HN request time: 0.201s | source
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einpoklum ◴[19 Nov 24 21:19 UTC] No.42188197[source]▶
So, they built this supercomputer to test new and more deadly nuclear weapons. That makes me so "happy". I am absolutely not worried about two nuclear powers being close to the brink of direct war, even as we speak; nor about the abandonment of the course of nuclear disarmament treaty; nor about the repeated talk of a coming war against certain Asian powers. Everything is great and I'll just fawn over the colorful livery and the petaflops figure.
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1. comboy ◴[19 Nov 24 21:23 UTC] No.42188226[source]▶
I'd guess it's unlikely to be the real use case. The real one is classified. Plus it's not like more deadly nuclear weapons would change anything, we can do bad enough with what we already have.
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2. JumpCrisscross ◴[19 Nov 24 21:25 UTC] No.42188243[source]▶
> it's unlikely to be the real use case. The real one is classified.

What are you basing this on?

> it's not like more deadly nuclear weapons would change anything

We haven't been chasing yield in nuclear weapons since the 60s.

Our oldest warheads date from the 60s [1]. For obvious reasons, the experimental track record on half-century old pits is scarce. We don't know if novel physics or chemistry is going on in there, and we don't want to be the second ones to find out.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb

3. alephnerd ◴[19 Nov 24 21:32 UTC] No.42188315[source]▶
> I'd guess it's unlikely to be the real use case

I can safely say that nuclear simulations are one of the major drivers for HPC research globally.

It is not the only one (genomics, simulations, fundamental research are also major drivers) but it is a fairly prominent one.

4. realo ◴[19 Nov 24 22:05 UTC] No.42188602[source]▶
Maybe there is research not on bigger bangs, but on smaller packages?

Think about a baseball-size device able to take out a city block.

Then think about an escadron of drones able to transport those baseballs to very precise city blocks...