calculateur scientifique

English translation: supercomputer

16:47 Mar 14, 2008
French to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Mechanics / Mech Engineering
French term or phrase: calculateur scientifique
"Le présent marché a pour objet l'acquisition d'un calculateur scientifique et son Maintien en Condition Opérationnelle pour le Centre d'électronique de l'armement de ______"
Ken Fagan (X)
Local time: 16:14
English translation:supercomputer
Explanation:
Bourth is right, but "mainframe" is simply too wimpy. The Ifremer installation is a supercomputer.

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Note added at 3 hrs (2008-03-14 20:04:26 GMT)
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"The term supercomputer itself is rather fluid, and today's supercomputer tends to become tomorrow's normal computer. CDC's early machines were simply very fast scalar processors, some ten times the speed of the fastest machines offered by other companies. In the 1970s most supercomputers were dedicated to running a vector processor, and many of the newer players developed their own such processors at a lower price to enter the market. The early and mid-1980s saw machines with a modest number of vector processors working in parallel become the standard. Typical numbers of processors were in the range of four to sixteen. In the later 1980s and 1990s, attention turned from vector processors to massive parallel processing systems with thousands of "ordinary" CPUs, some being off the shelf units and others being custom designs. (This is commonly and humorously referred to as the attack of the killer micros in the industry.) Today, parallel designs are based on "off the shelf" server-class microprocessors, such as the PowerPC, Itanium, or x86-64, and most modern supercomputers are now highly-tuned computer clusters using commodity processors combined with custom interconnects." (Wikipedia on the subject)

The point is, you can't *assume* it's a mainframe. There will always be a pecking order of supercomputers. :-)

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Note added at 3 hrs (2008-03-14 20:25:07 GMT)
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Consider anything rated in teraflops, or even in the high gigaflops, a supercomputer.
Selected response from:

rkillings
United States
Local time: 08:14
Grading comment
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +3scientific calculator
Johannes Gleim
4supercomputer
rkillings
4mainframe computer
Bourth (X)


Discussion entries: 7





  

Answers


1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
"calculateur scientifique"
supercomputer


Explanation:
Bourth is right, but "mainframe" is simply too wimpy. The Ifremer installation is a supercomputer.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-03-14 20:04:26 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

"The term supercomputer itself is rather fluid, and today's supercomputer tends to become tomorrow's normal computer. CDC's early machines were simply very fast scalar processors, some ten times the speed of the fastest machines offered by other companies. In the 1970s most supercomputers were dedicated to running a vector processor, and many of the newer players developed their own such processors at a lower price to enter the market. The early and mid-1980s saw machines with a modest number of vector processors working in parallel become the standard. Typical numbers of processors were in the range of four to sixteen. In the later 1980s and 1990s, attention turned from vector processors to massive parallel processing systems with thousands of "ordinary" CPUs, some being off the shelf units and others being custom designs. (This is commonly and humorously referred to as the attack of the killer micros in the industry.) Today, parallel designs are based on "off the shelf" server-class microprocessors, such as the PowerPC, Itanium, or x86-64, and most modern supercomputers are now highly-tuned computer clusters using commodity processors combined with custom interconnects." (Wikipedia on the subject)

The point is, you can't *assume* it's a mainframe. There will always be a pecking order of supercomputers. :-)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 3 hrs (2008-03-14 20:25:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Consider anything rated in teraflops, or even in the high gigaflops, a supercomputer.

rkillings
United States
Local time: 08:14
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 7

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  Bourth (X): What's above "supercomputer"? They say theirs is "INTERMEDIAIRE ENTRE LES GRANDS MOYENS DE CALCUL NATIONAUX (presumably sth like a Cray, which IS a supercomputer) ET LES EQUIPEMENTS A L’ECHELLE DU LABORATOIRE". / Right you are.
3 mins
  -> If Blue Gene is the ranking supercomputer today (disputed), then all Crays *were* supercomputers in their day but are no longer?
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1 hr   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
"calculateur scientifique"
mainframe computer


Explanation:
"Calculator" makes it sound like something from Texas Instruments that you can slip in your shirt pocket. Besides, that would be "calculatRICE" or "calculETTE".

"Scientifique" as opposed to "personnel".

The one at IFREMER looks like a mainframe computer. The size of a decent wardrobe, definitely not a desktop or an Apollo.

Un nouveau CALCULATEUR SCIENTIFIQUE dix fois plus puissant
Un nouveau calculateur, appelé Nymphea, a remplacé l’ancien équipement. Cette installation concrétise une démarche menée en partenariat avec la communauté scientifique [Université de Bretagne occidentale (UBO)-Institut universitaire européen de la mer (IUEM), SHOM, école Navale, Ensieta], en vue de constituer à Brest un pôle de calcul intensif pour la mer. Ce projet a reçu un soutien financier de la région Bretagne, du Conseil général du Finistère et de la communauté urbaine de Brest. Cette machine, à vocation régionale, sera accessible de tous les sites de l’Ifremer. Positionnée comme une INFRASTRUCTURE INTERMEDIAIRE ENTRE LES GRANDS MOYENS DE CALCUL NATIONAUX ET LES EQUIPEMENTS A L’ECHELLE DU LABORATOIRE, cet outil renforce les capacités des équipes de modélisateurs en environnement côtier et en circulation océanique, très à l’étroit dans la configuration précédente. Il permet aussi de prendre en compte les applications émergentes en géosciences et en bio-informatique.
www.ifremer.fr/francais/rapp2001/equipements.htm


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Note added at 1 hr (2008-03-14 18:00:27 GMT)
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I didn't realize "calculateur" was still used. I thought it had gone out of fashion years ago. The definition below, in any case, no longer applies.

"calculateur analogique - analog computer
... Alors que dans un ORDINATEUR les calculs se déroulent de façon séquentielle, dans un CALCULATEUR ANALOGIQUE ils s'effectuent en parallèle. On a songé très rapidement à associer calculateurs analogiques et ordinateurs afin, notamment, d'alléger la programmation des premiers, mais également afin d'accroître la souplesse de simulation, donnant ainsi naissance au calculateur hybride...

calculateur électronique - computer (ordinateur)

[Dict. de l'informatique, Larousse, 1981 [ ! ]

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Note added at 5 hrs (2008-03-14 22:31:31 GMT)
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rkillings is right. What IFREMER calls a "calculateur scientifique" is indeed a supercomputer, being a number of interconnected what appear to be supercomputers in their own right.

Description succincte du marché ou de l’achat/des achats: Dans le
cadre d’un partenariat avec plusieurs établissements publics travaillant dans le domaine de l’océanographie, l'IFREMER a pris la décision de REMPLACER dans le cadre du projet CAPARMOR (Calcul PARallèle Mutualisé pour l’Océanographie et la Recherche) son calculateur scientifique actuel «nymphea» (HP-COMPAQ SC45) par une machine d'une puissance de calcul très largement supérieure (d’un facteur 8 à 10).
http://dgmarket.hpk.ee/eproc/np-notice.do?noticeId=1591026

Deux particularités distinguent l'environnement informatique d'un environnement standard conforme à l'état de l'art : la présence d'un calculateur scientifique (machine parallèle à 64 processeurs) pour satisfaire les besoins en matière de prévisions océaniques et celle d'un parc de traceurs permettant d'effectuer des reproductions de cartes en couleur au format A0 avec une précision cartographique.
http://www.shom.eu/fr_page/fr_shom/mission_f.htm

Le calculateur ‘’Nymphea‘’ se compose d'un « cluster » de 9 noeuds COMPAQ ES45, quadri-processeurs, connectés par « switch » Quadrix. Les processeurs sont des processeurs Alpha EV68 cadencés à 1GHz. Sa mémoire globale est de 92 GigaOctets. L’OS est Tru64 UNIX. Ressource partagée avec le SHOM et l’IRD. Le code ROMS est régulièrement exécuté desus. Problématiques : Hydrodynamique, Calcul de structure, Biochimie, Applications couplées (ex. : hydrodynamique et chimique), développement de code parallélisé
http://www.ird.nc/UR65/ROMS/Biblio/Dossier_Cluster.pdf

The AlphaServer SC is the very high end of HP's AlphaServer line (SC stands for SUPERCOMPUTER). The system is typical for the present development of SMP-based clustered systems. In the SC system the basic SMP node is the COMPAQ ES45, a 4-CPU SMP system with the Alpha 21264a (EV68) as its processor. The clock frequency is 1.25 GHz. The SMP node has a crossbar as its internal network with an aggregate bandwidth of 5.2 GB/s (1.33 GB/s/processor). This is sufficient to deliver 1.0.64 byte/clock cycle to each processor in the node simultaneously.
Within a node the system is a shared memory machine that allows for shared-memory parallel processing, for instance by using OpenMP. When more than four processors are required, one has to use a message passing programming model like MPI, PVM, or HPF (HP/Compaq is one of the few companies that still provides its own HPF compiler).
For communication between the SMP nodes the SC uses QsNet, a network manufactured by QSW Limited. In fact QsNet is the follow-on of the network employed in the former Meiko CS-2 systems (see QsNet). The network has the structure of a fat tree, is based on PCI technology, and has a point-to-point bandwidth of 280 MB/s. Because of its fat tree structure the bandwidth in the upper level of the network is 340 MB/s sustained. The peak bandwidth is, according to the documentation, “500 MB/s per server” without further specification which looks impressive but is not very informative. QSW claims a very low latency of 5 µs for MPI messages.
Measured Performances: In [44] a performance of 13.88 Tflop/s on a 2-way cluster of fully configured AlphaServer SC45s (8192 processors) was reported solving a full linear system of order 633,000 with an efficiency of 68.0%.
http://www.arcade-eu.net/overview/2005/compaqsc.html



Bourth (X)
Local time: 16:14
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 806
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17 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +3
"calculateur scientifique"
scientific calculator


Explanation:
scientific calculator, what else?

Scientific Calculator
try our new version beta
http://www.calculator.com/calcs/calc_sci.html

and other 1.330.000 Google hits

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Note added at 4 Tage (2008-03-18 21:22:51 GMT)
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One firm call it "Scientific Calculator" other firms call it "Scientific Computer". In fact, there is no exact border between these designations. For example see, how pocket computers are called:

For the Casio users, Tandy chose three units from the Casio stable, calling them the Pocket Scientific Computers and emphasizing their additional specialized mathematic functions.
...
For their part, Sharp and Casio continued to produce and develop their Pocket Computer lines into the 1990s. As BASIC programmability became less important, cross-pollination occurred with their respective classroom and scientific calculator designs and ironically spawned models closer to being "pocket scientific computers" than what Tandy foisted on the public in 1986.
http://www.floodgap.com/retrobits/tpm/

Most useful is the, over 12 years old, Sharp EL-5500II, scientific calculator-computer combination, which can handle all the odd spur of the moment figuring jobs around the model railroad.
http://www.geocities.com/budb3/arts/howc.html

No idea of the size or capacity of the client's computer. but "Scientific Computer" sounds more performant than "Scientific Calculator", ever if there is no real well-founded difference.

Johannes Gleim
Local time: 16:14
Works in field
Native speaker of: German
PRO pts in category: 55

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  liz askew
0 min
  -> Thank you

agree  MatthewLaSon: seems possible here...I'm not convinced yet that it's anything else
1 hr
  -> Thank you

agree  Mohamed Mehenoun
2 days 50 mins
  -> Thank you!
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