Petascale computing
Petascale computing refers to high-power computing systems capable of performing at least 1 quadrillion arithmetic, or floating-point operations per second . These systems are often called petaflops systems and represent a significant leap from traditional supercomputers in terms of raw performance, enabling them to handle vast datasets and complex computations.
Petascale computing typically finds application in large-scale applications like climate and weather modeling, astrophysics simulations, advanced materials design, and realtime medical imaging..
Definition
is one measure of computer performance. FLOPS can be recorded in different measures of precision, however the standard measure uses 64 bit operations per second using the High Performance LINPACK benchmark.The metric typically refers to single computing systems, although it can be used to measure distributed computing systems for comparison. It can be noted that there are alternative precision measures using the LINPACK benchmarks which are not part of the standard metric/definition. It has been recognized that HPLinpack may not be a good general measure of supercomputer utility in real world application, however it is the common standard for performance measurement.
History
The petaFLOPS barrier was first broken by the RIKEN MDGRAPE-3 supercomputer in 2006, and then on 16 September 2007 by the distributed computing Folding@home project. IBM's single petascale system, the Roadrunner, entered operation in 2008. The Roadrunner, built by IBM, had a sustained performance of 1.026 petaFLOPS. The Jaguar became the next computer to break the petaFLOPS milestone, later in 2008, and reached a performance of 1.759 petaFLOPS after a 2009 update.In 2020, Fugaku became the fastest supercomputer in the world, reaching 415 petaFLOPS in June 2020. Fugaku later achieved an Rmax of 442 petaFLOPS in November of the same year.
In 2022, exascale computing overtook petascale computing in terms of power with the development of Frontier, surpassing Fugaku with an Rmax of 1.102 exaFLOPS in June 2022.