ALCF : Super Computers for scientific researches

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), located at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, has grabbed all attention by running over two billion processor-hours of computations at a super fast speed of over 557 trillion calculations a second. With this innovation, scientists and engineers will be superbly benefitted for it will help them to conduct cutting-edge research in a much lesser time in comparison to the time span that is required now.

Pete Beckman, director of the ALCF, said, "The ALCF is dedicated to enabling breakthrough science -- science that will change our world,” He added, "From understanding the basic building blocks of nature to fueling industry and driving innovation, the power of supercomputers touches all of our lives."

In quest for technical knowledge, supercomputers have become essentially important to every aspect of science and engineering.

Argonne's supercomputer is used by researchers to:
• Assess the impacts of regional climate change
• Model the molecular basis of Parkinson's disease to develop new treatments
• Gain insight into heart rhythm disorders
• Design technologies to reduce aerodynamic noise and cut carbon emissions
• Design new materials required for lithium-air batteries

A "processor-hour" means a single computer processor running for an hour. The ALCF reached the two billion processor-hour mark, in May 2010, when researchers were studying computational fluid dynamics in SUNY at Stony Brooks.