the first commercially developed Supercomputer

Supercomputers was introduced in the 1960s were designed by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation (CDC),which led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to form his own company, Cray Research.

Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems involving quantum mechanical physics, weather forecasting, climate research which includes research into global warming, physical simulations (such as simulation of airplanes in wind tunnels, simulation of the detonation of nuclear weapons, and research into nuclear fusion), cryptanalysis, and the like. Major universities, military agencies and scientific research laboratories are heavy users.

The Cray-2 was the world's fastest computer from 1985 to 1989.

An easy programming language for supercomputers remains an open research topic in computer science. Several free utilities that would once have cost several thousands of dollars are now completely free thanks to the open source community which often creates disruptive technology in this arena.

by Sandra Jaafar