back to article US superputer nuke boffins puff mighty, arse-kicking GPU

It almost goes without saying these days that if you have a powerful computer you should also have a powerful graphics card. This also holds true in the world of supercomputing: boffins operating the fifth most powerful known computer in the world - the "Intrepid" system at the Argonne US national laboratory - are chuffed as …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Never understood..

    ...the need for simulating nuclear explosions...

    Thought the effect of an A-bomb were pretty much understood since 1945 and H-bombs since the 50's.

    Either way, they go kaboom, flatten and incinerate lots of things and are generally not nice if your on the receiving end...

    Granted, gonna piss of the sados at a LAN party!

  2. Adrian Challinor
    Coat

    Kilowrists?

    I thought the national standard for porn was now the Timney?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    But....

    Will it render Doom3 graphics at decent FPS?

  4. Mike

    Finally

    something to play secondlife with. where is the link to the outlet store where we can pick one up?

  5. Liam Johnson

    Monitor

    But what sort of monitor do you need to display all that data?

  6. Paul
    Paris Hilton

    25 kilowrists

    Is there some sort of law for the exponential increase in wrist rate like Moore's law for processors?

    If so who is it named after?

    Paris as she would get my vote.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    10,000 disks!!

    If the MTBF for their HDs is 500,000 hours they are going to be changing one of those disks every 4.8 days.

    The guys at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore worked very hard to get rid of disks because they were fed up of changing them.

  8. BlueGreen

    @10,000 disks!! - AC

    how does one 'get rid of disks', please. Serious question.

    ta

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Joke

    Finally...

    ...'Vista Capable' hardware comes into existence...

    *ziiiiiiiiiiiiiing*

    I'm truly... truly sorry... Just keep the coat...

  10. Mike Powers

    @first-post AC

    The point is that via simulation, we can "get around" the Test Ban Treaty. While you can't set off an actual bomb, you can set off as many simulated bombs as you like; and so you can be sure, to a reasonable degree, that your bombs will actually work if it comes time to use them.

  11. K. Adams
    Flame

    Finally...

    ... A system that can run Crysis at full rez, with everything cranked to high!

    :-p

  12. Gregg S
    Unhappy

    Not a nuke lab.

    Argonne has nothing to do with nuclear weapons. That work is done at Livermore, Los Alamos and Sandia. The US Congress and DOE have been killing off those 3 labs via not-so-benign neglect for years - don't expect anything like this graphics tool to be delivered to the weapons people. At Livermore they don't even have much of a janitor staff anymore.

    Nice tool though - rigged up to a matrix of flat panels for a super-high resolution display you can visualize your computational work very nicely.

  13. Filippo Silver badge

    @BlueGreen

    You nuke them. Duh.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    finally ..

    maybe at last there is a system that can run Vista at a useable speed ...

    only the one Jacqui comment? People lose interest in things sooooo quickly.

  15. Peter Fielden-Weston
    Coat

    But...

    Can it understand _WOMEN_!!!!!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    @Mike Powers - point is that via simulation

    Ack, I thought you said STIMulation.

    She understands what I mean.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Must try harder

    Does no one reading the Reg have a decent sense of wit at all, or even read the end of Reg articles?

    Ooo, it can run Doom/Crysis/Vista at an appropriate speed. HAH, HILARIOUS!!!!

  18. BlueGreen

    @Filippo

    a filippant answer.

  19. BlueGreen

    @Filippo

    just in case I wasn't making myself clear, the original poster quoth "The guys at Sandia National Laboratories in Livermore worked very hard to get rid of disks because they were fed up of changing them."

    I meant, how are they managing in their absence? What artefact/process takes their place?

  20. Ed

    @Peter Fielden-Weston

    Nope not even Deep Thought could answer that

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