China versus USA: World’s fastest supercomputer

Tianhe-2 supercomputer change color depending on the power load.
from arstechnica.com

According to the semiannual TOP500 official listing of the world’s fastest supercomputers,China has built the world’s fastest supercomputer- almost twice as fast as the previous U.S. holder. The China's Tianhe-2 (Milky Way-2) is capable of sustained computing 33,860 trillion calculations per second (33.86 petaflops per second) knocking out the U.S. Department of Energy’s Titan machine off the no. 1 spot with only 17.59 petaflops per second.

“Most of the features of the system were developed in China...using Intel for the main compute part.....the interconnect, operating system, front-end processors and software are mainly Chinese.” said TOP500 editor Jack Dongarra.

The Titan supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Labs (Tennessee lab run by the US Department of Energy)
is made of nearly 19,000 processing units stitched together with 710 terabytes of memory.
from wired.co.uk

Supercomputers are used for complex work such as modeling weather systems, simulating nuclear explosions and designing jetliners.

Tags: TOP500 , fastest supercomputers, supercomputers, China, Tianhe-2 (Milky Way-2), Tianhe-2 , Milky Way-2, U.S. , U.S. Department of Energy, Titan machine , Titan , Intel , Jack Dongarra, Dongarra, petaflops

2013 NBA Finals: 7 ODD and Intriguing Facts

from solarsportsdesk.ph

It's Game 1 of the 2013 NBA Finals this Thursday night between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs! Below are some odd  and intriguing facts about the match up from philstar.com

1. Tim Duncan is in line to be the first NBA player to win a championship in three decades if the Spurs manage to dethrone the reigning champions.

2. There are four Final MVP’s participating in this series, with two each representing the West and East champions: Tony Parker (1) and Tim Duncan (3) for the Spurs, and LeBron James (1) and Dwyane Wade (1) for the Heat.

3. This will be the fifth NBA Finals appearance for Tim Duncan; fourth for his longtime teammates Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili and third for LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.

Tim Duncan,Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili

Dwyane Wade and LeBron James

4. The Spurs have never lost in the finals, having a perfect 4-0 record.

5. Former two-time scoring champion Tracy Mcgrady, recently signed by the Spurs, finally has advanced past the first round in his playing career and all the way to the Finals.

6. All of San Antonio’s championship years came on odd number of years (99, 03, 05 and 07).

7. The last time LeBron James and Tim Duncan met at the NBA Finals, Duncan’s Spurs swept LeBron’s Cleveland Cavaliers.

See related post:

2013 NBA Finals: FUNNY MEMEs

Tags: 2013 NBA Finals, NBA Finals, NBA , Miami Heat, Miami , Heat, San Antonio Spurs, San Antonio, Spurs, Tim Duncan, Duncan, Tony Parker , Parker , LeBron James, LeBron, James, Dwyane Wade, Wade, Cleveland Cavaliers, Cleveland, Cavaliers, Tracy Mcgrady, Tracy , Mcgrady