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What CIOs Should Know About High-Performance Computing
Bob Sorensen & Steve Conway, Research VP, IDC's High Performance Computing Group


Bob Sorensen & Steve Conway, Research VP, IDC's High Performance Computing Group
If you follow the technical press, you are sure to see all sorts of announcements about the latest and greatest high performance computing (HPC) systems. The machines that typically make the papers are the biggest and most dazzling in the world: they are capable of hundreds of quadrillions of operation per second – that's a one with 17 zeros after it, use the same amount of electricity as a small neighborhood and cost slightly less than half a billion dollars. These HPC systems are pressed into exotic uses that include 100 year global weather predictions, simulation of supersonic air flowing over the wing of an advanced stealthfighter, and modeling the process of a star exploding into a super nova. “HPC systems are becoming an increasingly necessary ingredient in any industry's ability to develop new and innovative products” However, HPCs are that and much more. Available in a wide range of performance options—from the high-end giants to smaller and thankfully less expense versions–HPC systems are increasingly critical to the overall economic competitiveness of companies, and indeed, nations around the world. In a recent IDC worldwide study, 97 percent of the commercial firms that had adopted HPC systems said they could no longer compete or survive without it. In another study released by the Council on Competitiveness late last year, the summary concluded that HPC system are inextricably linked to innovation, fueling breakthroughs in science, engineering, and business. HPC use was cited as a tool used by leaders in diverse fields to help design new products, to improve existing products, and to bring products to market more efficiently. Recent examples that highlight some less traditional but no less innovative use of HPC systems include: • PayPal, an eBay company, leveraging HPC technologies to provide real-time stream analytics for behavioral and situational modeling related to online fraud detection. The addition of HPC capability enables PayPal to advance to real-time fraud detection, and the system handles more than 4 billion new records daily. Conservatively estimated, the revenue savings generated by applying the HPC infrastructure for fraud detection translates to over $710 million. • The Center for Pediatric Genomic Medicine at the Children's
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