Intro, or Why Supercomputers like Prometheus59 are a Global Trend for the Coming Decades
Each year brings us technological innovations. Mobile phones, laptops, computers grow in performance and generally become less in size. Digital technologies are deeply integrated into our daily lives, but what stands behind this impressive progress?
Mostly physics and mathematics. Transistors (elementary cells of computers) are reduced in size, while mathematicians are inventing new algorithms to optimize information processing. However, this impressive miniaturization has a natural limit described by Moore’s law (check it on Wikipedia): soon, probably within a few years, the physical size of transistors should reach the atomic scale, which would reduce the ability to build new computing devices to
a) study of new physical computing platforms that could replace semiconductor electronics;
b) increase in computing power through such technologies as parallel computing and multi-core architectures.
How to make parallel computing possible, providing it requires an enormous amount of parallel calculations?
The answer lies on the surface: one should unite as many computers as possible — hundreds of thousands, millions, dozens of millions — into a single computing network and create something called a supercomputer, something allowing us to solve previously unsolvable tasks. That is the ambitious mission of Prometheus59.
Prometheus59: Tasks to Solve and Differences from Traditional Supercomputers
If you didn’t dive deep into the intricacies of using computational resources, or you have never had a super complex task to solve urgently, then your first logical question would be, “What to do with the huge computational power, especially when it comes to an average user?” After all, our phones are already powerful enough to solve any routine tasks and even surpass the capacities of the supercomputers that were used in large-scale industrial projects of the XX century.
Nevertheless, the term “supercomputer” pops up more and more often, especially in the context of new scientific and technological achievements. It turns out that human knowledge faces a number of extremely difficult tasks, and solving these tasks requires enormous computational resources.
So what is a regular supercomputer?
Basically, a supercomputer is a large number of interconnected high-performance server computers that can help in scientific problems that are reduced to parallelized computations (when a problem can be divided into several subtasks and solved simultaneously). Though this approach is not always possible, it can be useful in processing data of particle accelerators such as Large Hadron Collider, giant telescopes, modeling new materials (for example, high-temperature superconductors transferring energy without loss), drugs, and even DNA deciphering.
Unfortunately, the use of supercomputers is still significantly underestimated, especially when it comes to science. The global arms race and the thirst for profit reduced the use of superpowers to the invention of new types of weapons, improvements in military and defense industries, and strengthening the dictatorship of individual classes and castes. As for providing people with food and water, discovering new drugs, etc. — these relevant problems always lack due attention.
Prometheus59 will provide computing power to solve the most pressing problems of mankind. This will be possible mainly due to the inability of a single entity to control the computing power of Prometheus59. Relying on thousands of ordinary computers will keep Prometheus59 independent and ensure it follows the original goal.
Key Advantages of Prometheus59 over Industrial Supercomputers
The key difference is that Prometheus59 unites computers with any computing power (it should be noted that the amount of provided computing power will determine the provider’s reward for it). Anyone will be able to provide unused computing resources to the network and receive his proportional reward. Likewise, anyone will be able to rent any amount of computing power, paying only for the power used.
The extended information is available by the links below. Follow us to learn more about supercomputers and the development of Prometheus59.
Website: https://prometheus59.net
Twitter: https://twitter.com/59Prometheus