The 10 most expensive computers in the world are all prime examples of how far we have pushed the boundaries of technology and how much we advance in so little time. Computing has become an integral part of everything that concerns humanity from the most complex branches of science to the utterly pointless games we see today. Computers of various sizes and shapes have taken on the core concepts of human life and are currently transforming existence as we know it and all we see from that is the glow of our phone screens. Much like the 10 most expensive gadgets in the world, computers are used to make our lives easier and just like the mythically godsend fire and language, we find numerous ways to make our lives harder with it. However, this list is not about that. This list celebrates the glory and pure marvelousness of computer systems of unimaginable size and power which are nothing like the measly gaming rig this one of your friends spent all his savings on.
Computing right now is virtually infinitely upgradeable due to the structure of a supercomputer. These wonders of modern technology are much like thousands of smaller computers which are specifically set up and use an operating system that makes them all work together to execute a certain set of instructions. The exciting part is that to overcome the physical limits of electronics, this whole hive of individual nodes must be programmed to work so efficiently that it starts working better than it theoretically possible. Of course, the aforementioned is made impossible by what economists know as the Jevons paradox – when you use a resource extremely efficiently yet the usage of it rises due to increased demand.
The first supercomputer is considered by many to be the Atlas, the first of which was commissioned in 1962. This computer was approaching processing speeds of close to a million instructions per second – something the device you are reading this article on does while you don’t use it. Each of the three Atlas machines built cost two and a half million British pounds and operated for eight hundred pounds an hour. Nowadays for a negligible portion of your utility bill, your washing machine operates more efficiently than Atlas did.
Let’s take a look at the 10 most expensive computers in the world which carry the legacy on.
10. Vulcan BlueGene/Q
Price: $100 million
The tenth contender on our list is actually the ninth fastest supercomputer in the world. This computer has been in operation since 2013 and currently resides in Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, US.
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9. SuperMUC
Price: $111 million
The SuperMUC is the second fastest supercomputer in Germany but more people hold it in high regard not because of its computational power as much as its unique cooling method which quite literally uses hot water.
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8. IBM Roadrunner
Price: $130 million
IBM’s Roadrunner takes the eight spot on this list and a very special spot in the Los Alamos National Laboratory in the USA. Its main purpose is highly classified and all that the public is allowed to know is that it monitors the nation’s nuclear arsenal’s natural decay.
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7. Trinity
Price: $174 million
Trinity is only theory for now but two of the most notorious US laboratories are working on this giant which is going to be in charge of keeping the country’s nuclear weapon program secure and functional at all times.
6. Sequoia BlueGene/Q
Price: $250 million
Belonging to the National Nuclear Security Agency, this IBM creation is used to research climate change, electricity and energy and nuclear weapons.
5. ASC Purple and BlueGene/L
Price: $290 million
Our fifth spot on the list of the 10 most expensive computers in the world belongs to a pair of supercomputers which were decommissioned in 2010 but before that were used to predict climate change and the effects of global warming.
4. Sierra and Summit
Price: $325 million
Sierra and Summit are twin supercomputers which are a collaboration between nVidia and IBM and are set to be deployed in 2017. The pair is said to be able to surpass the current most powerful computer in the world.
3. Tianhe-2
Price: $390 million
Tianhe-2, meaning Milky Way-2 in Chinese is currently the fastest supercomputer in the world. Put together by over a thousand scientists, this giant is used for research and security purposes by the Chinese government.
2. Earth Simulator
Price: $500 million
The Earth Simulator is a Japanese creation which takes the second place on our list. At the time of its creation it was the fastest and most expensive supercomputer. As its name indicates, it is used for climate simulations and various other research tasks.
1. Fujitsu-K
Price: $1.2 billion
The winner in the list of the 10 most expensive computers in the world is Japan’s Fujitsu-K. It’s the fourth-fastest supercomputer in the world and costs around ten million annually.
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