Editing History of computing (section)

=== Supercomputers ===
In terms of supercomputing, the first widely acknowledged supercomputer was the [[Control Data Corporation]] (CDC) [[CDC 6600|6600]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hpe.com/us/en/insights/articles/a-super-fast-history-of-supercomputers-from-the-cdc-6600-to-the-sunway-taihulight-1711.html|title=A super-fast history of supercomputers: From the CDC 6600 to the Sunway TaihuLight|first=Steven|last=Vaughan-Nichols|date=November 27, 2017}}</ref> built in 1964 by [[Seymour Cray]]. Its maximum speed was 40&nbsp; MHz or 3 million floating point operations per second ([[FLOPS]]). The CDC 6600 was replaced by the [[CDC 7600]] in 1969;<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gordonbell.azurewebsites.net/craytalk/tsld052.htm|title=CDC 7600}}</ref> although its normal clock speed was not faster than the 6600, the 7600 was still faster due to its peak clock speed, which was approximately 30 times faster than that of the 6600. Although CDC was a leader in supercomputers, their relationship with Seymour Cray (which had already been deteriorating) completely collapsed. In 1972, Cray left CDC and began his own company, [[Cray Research|Cray Research Inc]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Seymour-R-Cray|title=Seymour R. Cray|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> With support from investors in Wall Street, an industry fueled by the Cold War, and without the restrictions he had within CDC, he created the [[Cray-1]] supercomputer. With a clock speed of 80&nbsp; MHz or 136 megaFLOPS, Cray developed a name for himself in the computing world. By 1982, Cray Research produced the [[Cray X-MP]] equipped with multiprocessing and in 1985 released the [[Cray-2]], which continued with the trend of multiprocessing and clocked at 1.9 gigaFLOPS. Cray Research developed the [[Cray Y-MP]] in 1988, however afterward struggled to continue to produce supercomputers. This was largely because the Cold War had ended, and the demand for cutting-edge computing by colleges and the government declined drastically and the demand for microprocessing units increased.

In 1998, [[David A. Bader|David Bader]] developed the first [[Linux]] supercomputer using commodity parts.<ref name=fernbach>{{cite web| url= https://www.computer.org/press-room/2021-news/david-bader-to-receive-2021-ieee-cs-sidney-fernbach-award | title=David Bader Selected to Receive the 2021 IEEE Computer Society Sidney Fernbach Award|publisher=IEEE Computer Society|date=September 22, 2021 |accessdate= 2023-10-12}}</ref> While at the University of New Mexico, Bader sought to build a supercomputer running Linux using consumer off-the-shelf parts and a high-speed low-latency interconnection network. The prototype utilized an Alta Technologies "AltaCluster" of eight dual, 333&nbsp; MHz, Intel Pentium II computers running a modified Linux kernel. Bader ported a significant amount of software to provide Linux support for necessary components as well as code from members of the National Computational Science Alliance (NCSA) to ensure interoperability, as none of it had been run on Linux previously.<ref name=IEEEhistory>{{cite journal|last=Bader|first=David A.|journal=IEEE Annals of the History of Computing|title=Linux and Supercomputing: How My Passion for Building COTS Systems Led to an HPC Revolution|date=2021|volume=43|issue=3|pages=73–80|doi=10.1109/MAHC.2021.3101415|s2cid=237318907 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Using the successful prototype design, he led the development of "RoadRunner," the first Linux supercomputer for open use by the national science and engineering community via the National Science Foundation's National Technology Grid. RoadRunner was put into production use in April 1999. At the time of its deployment, it was considered one of the 100 fastest supercomputers in the world.<ref name=IEEEhistory/><ref name="AJRoadRunner">{{cite news|last=Fleck|first=John|title=UNM to crank up $400,000 supercomputer today|newspaper=[[Albuquerque Journal]]|date=April 8, 1999|page=D1}}</ref>  Though Linux-based clusters using consumer-grade parts, such as [[Beowulf cluster|Beowulf]], existed before the development of Bader's prototype and RoadRunner, they lacked the scalability, bandwidth, and [[parallel computing]] capabilities to be considered "true" supercomputers.<ref name=IEEEhistory/>

Today, supercomputers are still used by the governments of the world and educational institutions for computations such as simulations of natural disasters, genetic variant searches within a population relating to disease, and more. {{As of|2024|November}}, the fastest supercomputer is [[El Capitan (supercomputer)|El Capitan]].