spot price buying of cheap electro certain parts of the day?

<cankerwort> theregister.co.uk/2020/03/04/el_capitan_two_exaflops_supercomputer

<cankerwort> That's a lot of hashpower

a lot of US electric companies have peak vs off-peak rates, probably other parts of the world too

if you could zoom in on that graph in UTC you could probably identify what timezone they're operating in

huh. El Capitan will only cost $600M? that's quite a bargain compared to supercomputer projects ofthe past

Fairly sure this thing will never have more than 12 hours of idle time any given week

wtf they need such a big machine to "simulate and study America's stockpile of nuclear weapons" for?

most efficient way to devastate the planet??

this has always been the number one driver of supercomputer development

and it's a good trade, compared to blowing up islands in the middle of the Pacific ocean

I mean, is it really worth that much money though.. Once you start shooting off nukes it hardly matters whether they are killing 10k people or 100k people at a time.

next konferenco can be at bikini atoll :D

this is pure research, and the results will not be strictly weapons-oriented. it just goes to show you how little is actually understood about high enrgy physics

and how much still needs to be learned

if we ever want fusion-based energy for civilian use, that learning comes from work like this

it's not just about simulating explosions

it's about simulating the physical properties of all the materials used to build these devices, and how they degrade over time due to exposure

that does make sense

their main goal might be how to build a more reliable bomb. but it all adds to knowledge of materials science, and how we safely harness this energy

speaking of fusion did you read this recent thingy? newatlas.com/energy/hb11-hydrogen-boron-fusion-clean-energy

btw, what do they do with decommissioned super pooters? does the hardware end up on ebay or?

sometimes universities pick them up, dunno

which ones getting decommissioned?

damn, missed that one

ever visit one of those .. machines in person? :P

I've worked with a couple, yes. not much to see, rows of cabinets.