I suspect you’re reading this article from behind your PC or laptop, and I’m sure you’re happy with the speed and performance of your machine. But there’s always better. So imagine owning a personal computer which is 250 times faster than what you’re used to. Tesla, the world’s first supercomputer, is upon us.

Before you get too excited, the new Tesla range of supercomputers aren’t quite yet ready for mainstream consumption. For starters, the computers start from £4,000, and they are only currently being made available to universities, and scientific and research communities.

The Tesla was launched in London at the end of last week, although it has been available in the U.S. for a month or so. Unlike the normal supercomputer, which usually consist of thousands of linked machines and take up whole rooms, the Tesla looks and acts like a normal PC, just being slightly bigger and much, much more impressive.

The desktop computers contain NVIDIA graphics processing units (GPUs) which handle multiple calculations at the speed and number normally reserved for clusters of computers. While a traditional processor, such as the ones in the PCs you and I are currently using, handles one task at a time, the new GPUs handle many tasks simultaneously.

It’s hoped that the new supercomputers will enable results and research to be carried out more quickly and efficiently. Doctors could use them to process scans in a matter of minutes rather than hours, while scientists could potentially use them to help discover cures or treatments for diseases.

The processing of information can be increased a thousand fold by the Tesla, meaning the results of experiments can be analyzed and adjusted on an hourly rather than weekly basis.

NVIDIA spokesman Benjamin Berraondo told The Daily Mail:

The technology represents a great leap forward in the history of computing. It is a change equivalent to the invention of the microchip.

PC maker Dell has stated that it’ll soon be mass producing the Tesla for the mainstream consumer market, although that £4,000 – £8,000 price tag is still going to frighten most ordinary people off from purchasing one.

However, as the technology becomes more widely used, it’ll also become cheaper, meaning the next wave of home computers could take advantage. And then we’ll all have what was once deemed a supercomputer as our daily working PC. That’s one slice of the future I’m looking forward to immensely.

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Entry was posted on Sunday, December 7th, 2008 at 7:24 pm under Opinion, Technology.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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