Insane in the Mainframe

This week, Germany is hosting the International Supercomputing Conference. Think of it as Oktoberfest for supercomputers, with less Hofbräuhaus and more schnitzel.

Supercomputers can crunch mind-boggling amounts of data and turbocharge AI applications. They're used for power-intensive problem solving: cancer research, mapping the human brain, climate modeling, and more.

State of the supercomputer

Top500, which tracks the world's most powerful supercomputers, just released its new tally: China leads with 219 supercomputers, while the U.S. has 116. But China has lost some ground since November—the U.S. added seven while China dropped eight.

• Top2: The U.S. still has the world's two most powerful supercomputers, Summit and Sierra, operated by the Department of Energy and built by IBM.

For the first time, all the top 500 supercomputers are Petaflop systems, meaning they're capable of handling a quadrillion (that's 1015) operations per second. Look for reshuffling within Top500, but don't expect any non-Petafloppers to crack the list again.