Figure 1.12. Supercomputer

Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks, such as, weather forecasting, climate research (global warming), molecular research, biological research, nuclear research and aircraft design. They are also used in major universities, military agencies and scientific research laboratories. Some examples of supercomputers are IBM Roadrunner, IBM Blue gene and Intel ASCI red. PARAM is a series of supercomputer assembled in India by C-DAC (Center for Development of Advanced Computing), in Pune. PARAM Padma is the latest machine in this series. The peak computing power of PARAM Padma is 1 Tera FLOP (TFLOP).

Questions

1. What is a microcomputers?

2. What is a minicomputers?

3. What is a Mainframe computers?

4. What is a supercomputers?

5. What types of the microcomputers do you know?

6. What is the purpose the supercomputers are used?

7. How the supercomputers are built?

8. What type of the computers are more expensive?