Super Computer Tour
Sorry to post so soon again but this tour was too cool not to share. As a part of the computer science division of this internship program we were given the opportunity to tour the NERSC which in layman's terms is just a really amazing super computer. Berkeley Lab actually has the eighth most powerful sumputer computer in the world. Before the tour there was a short lecture about what NERSC is and some of the projects it's being used for. During this talk we learned how powerful Cori, one of the supercomputers in NERSC, really is. They were comparing it to a typical desktop computer and in every category it was tens of thousands of time more efficient, more power. One statistic that really stood out to me is that an average person can do a short calculation in one second and there are 7 billion people on earth, but that's not even close to Cory's computing power. It would take all 7 billion people on FORTY MILLION earths each computing a simple math problem a second to compare to Cory.
These super computers, Cory and Edison, are amazingly impressive, but the building they're housed in has some fascinating features of there own. Most computer rooms are hot from the heat coming from the machines, but because of an air cooling system most of NERSC is actually cool. You can feel the air going into one side of Cory and coming out the other. There is one part of the lab where you can feel the heat and the temperature difference had to be 20 degrees. They don't just waste this thermal energy either. in fact they use the heat these machines generate to heat the entire building they're housed in. This is 4 story building with auditoriums and offices all heated by the excess of these supercomputers. Another really cool feature of the building itself is that the computer itself will actually stay completely still during earthquakes up to 5 on the Richter scale and beyond that they will only move up to 2 inches on either side. When an earthquake starts certain tiles have been made to break away and there is an entire system set up underneath the floor and stabilizers to ensure after the earthquake the computers don't just roll away. We could actually see some of the system meant to keep the floor still and there is a picture below along with some other great pictures taken by us inside NERSC.
These super computers, Cory and Edison, are amazingly impressive, but the building they're housed in has some fascinating features of there own. Most computer rooms are hot from the heat coming from the machines, but because of an air cooling system most of NERSC is actually cool. You can feel the air going into one side of Cory and coming out the other. There is one part of the lab where you can feel the heat and the temperature difference had to be 20 degrees. They don't just waste this thermal energy either. in fact they use the heat these machines generate to heat the entire building they're housed in. This is 4 story building with auditoriums and offices all heated by the excess of these supercomputers. Another really cool feature of the building itself is that the computer itself will actually stay completely still during earthquakes up to 5 on the Richter scale and beyond that they will only move up to 2 inches on either side. When an earthquake starts certain tiles have been made to break away and there is an entire system set up underneath the floor and stabilizers to ensure after the earthquake the computers don't just roll away. We could actually see some of the system meant to keep the floor still and there is a picture below along with some other great pictures taken by us inside NERSC.
Earthquake stabilization system
Our amazing tour guide!
Us in front of Cory
The hot part of the computer room
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