“By IBM’s own admission, weather forecasting seemed like an unusual use for it’s supercomputing technology,” Carl Franzen reports for TPM.
“But 16 years after it began work the parallel processing supercomputing system that would become known as ‘Deep Thunder’ —- a targeted weather forecasting program — IBM has taken the technology mobile, putting it on an iPad app and showing it off to lawmakers on Capitol Hill at a breakfast event on Wednesday and to reporters at its New York offices later in the week,” Franzen reports. “‘When you think of supercomputing, your mind doesn’t immediately jump to weather forecasting,’ said Michael Valocchi, vice president and partner at IBM’s energy utilities division, in a briefing with TPM. ‘Weather forecasting doesn’t sound exciting, but what we’ve found is that our system allows for an unprecedented granular look at incoming weather over an 84-hour period in a specific location, down to within a square mile, much more detailed than any other current weather forecast can provide.'”
Franzen reports, “The iPad app is the latest iteration of the software, although it isn’t available to the consumer market, yet.”
Read more in the full article here.
IBM’s “Deep Thunder” FAQ is here.
MacDailyNews Take: Uh, along with nuclear bomb simulations, the first thing that pops into mind when we hear “supercomputing” is weather forecasting. It’s not an “unusual use” for supercomputing at all.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Ron Robertson” for the heads up.]