National Exascale Day | October 18
Wed Oct 18th

National Exascale Day

On October 18 (10), National Exascale Day honors the scientists and researchers who make breakthrough contributions in medicine, materials science, energy, and elsewhere with the support of some of the world's fastest supercomputers.

#nationalexascaleday

With the advanced technology to get the answers, we like to say that National Exascale Day honors those who keep asking what if, why not, and what's next.

This era of electronics will have a major effect on virtually every facet of our daily lives. It will influence everything from healthcare and manufacturing to finding new energy sources and the universe's origins. Exascale is defined as a quintillion computations per second. For example, if all 7.7 billion people on earth each completed one calculation per second, it would take over four years. An exascale computer can do a quintillion calculations in 1 second.

So what, you may ask?

When science discovers and innovates in less time, it achieves positive outcomes sooner. The "so what" is that when science discovers and innovates in less time. More people with cancer than ever live. Populations deplete fewer natural resources from the earth. More people are eating healthier food on their tables. And so on.

How to observe national exascale day? how to celebrate national exascale day

Celebrate the geeks, gurus, and geniuses who are still asking the big questions and changing the world. Here are a few tips to get you off the ground: Here are a few ideas to get you off the ground:

  • Hug a scientist
  • Tell the world how your organization thinks about the effects of Exascale computation on the future by posting your website, blog, and media channels how your company communicates with the world
  • For lunch, have a scientist or science teacher
  • Sponsoring a science fair helps keep science alive in your classrooms

To post on social media, use the hashtag #NationalExascaleDay. To learn even more, continue reading to learn even more.

For your curious-er types, we've included a little more detail below.

Fun factoids

  • Exascale computation means a computing device that can do at least one exaflops (a billion) calculations per second
  • One quintillion gallons of water will leak over Niagara Falls for 40,000 years
  • The Milky Way galaxy is 1 quintillion kilometers wide, according to the Milky Way galaxy
  • The human brain is made up of 100 billion neurons – to reach one quintillion would require 10,000 people
  • Exascale computers will be about a million times more robust than the average notebook we use every day

A historical glimpse into the upcoming inflection point

The Internet enabled industry and industry to gather data like never before. Organizations of all sizes are being driven by data-intensive computation and digital transformation, with fast forward, data growth continues to propel companies of all sizes to data-intensive computation and digital transformation. AI, analytics, IoT, simulations, and modeling workloads are all converged into a single business-critical workflow, which must be both efficient and in real-time.

So, data growth, converging workloads, and the need for digital transformation have all prompted organizations to ask entirely new questions. And they need new capabilities to answer those questions. Exascale computing revolution revolutionizes how technology and people work together to answer today's most important questions and even larger ones tomorrow.

What makes now an exascale eraTM?

Exascale is more than a speed record or a system size. Exascale is new workloads pushed by new questions that are intermixed with new compute capabilities to produce a significant technological shift.

History of the national exascale day has influenced the national exascale day

"What if, why not, and what's next?" people are asking on a regular basis, with the advanced technology to get the answers. CRAY, a Hewlett Packard Enterprise firm, founded National Exascale Day in 2019 to honor those who keep asking, "what if, why not, and what's next?" The day also marks the start of a new era of supercomputing that will result in breakthroughs in fields benefiting all of humankind.

Exascale FAQ

What is the world's smallest computer? Q. What is the world's tiniest computer?

A. In 2018, researchers at the University of Michigan developed a microcomputer measuring 0.3 x 0.3mm, about the size of a grain of salt. And this is not the first time they've done it. They built the Michigan Micro Mote in 2015. The tiny device was 2x2x4mm.

What is a quintillion?

In a variety of ways, A. A quintillion can be written in a variety of ways:

  • 10
  • A thousand to the 6th power
  • Billion

Q. How many zeros does a quintillion have?

A. 18

Q. What comes after a quintillion?

A. A quintillion one. However, the next thousandth is called a sextillion, while the next thousandth is a sextillion.

What comes first before quintillion? Q. What comes first?

A. Quadrillion nine hundred ninety-nine. Or, if you mean the previous thousandth, quadrillion. We'll stop here now.