Chapter 304: You may need a quantum computer! Updates for the alliance leader Gao Shan Liu Shui have been completed)
With the stamped application form in hand, Xu Chuan came to the High Performance Computing Center of NTU and found Professor Zhou Qinglin, the director responsible for managing the entire supercomputing center.
"Professor Xu, you are a rare visitor. What kind of wind brings you here?"
Zhou Qinglin, who was at work, was stunned for a moment when he saw Xu Chuan, then quickly stood up and welcomed him with a smile.
"Director Zhou, the main reason I came here this time is to apply for the use of a supercomputer..."
After greeting Zhou Qinglin with a smile, Xu Chuan explained his purpose to him.
After listening to his request, Professor Zhou Qinglin looked surprised and surprised.
"You mean that you established a phenomenological mathematical control model for the plasma turbulence of a controllable nuclear fusion reactor? Are you sure... you're not mistaken?"
To be honest, he, Zhou Qinglin, has been in charge of the Supercomputing Center of NTU for more than ten years. He has seen many mathematical models, including mathematical models of fluids, turbulence, plasma flows, etc.
But this was his first time seeing the mathematical model of plasma turbulence in a controllable nuclear polymerization reactor.
Although he is not a mathematician or a physicist, he has controlled the supercomputing center for so many years and knows more or less the meaning behind this model.
Xu Chuan shrugged and said, "I don't need to waste everyone's time by joking about this. Your time is precious, and so is mine."
Hearing this, Zhou Qinglin laughed and said, "Professor Xu is joking, your time is much more valuable than mine."
After a pause, he continued: "Did you bring that model over? Let me take a look first."
Taking out the solid-state drive with the model stored in it from his backpack, Xu Chuan handed it over, nodded and said: "Bring it with you, this is it."
Zhou Qinglin took the model, opened it curiously and looked at it. After discovering that there was a hard drive inside, he looked up at Xu Chuan and joked: "It seems that this model is not small, and it needs a big hard drive to save it."
"
Xu Chuan smiled and said: "The model is not big, but running it is probably not that easy. I feel that the supercomputing center here may not be able to afford it."
Hearing this, Zhou Qinglin raised his eyebrows and said with a smile: "Then maybe what you need is not a supercomputer, but a quantum computer?"
Although the supercomputing center of NTU is not very strong and is not ranked high in the domestic supercomputing rankings, after completing the upgrade in 2015, it has deployed 910 CPU computing nodes, with a total of 3 CPU cores. In theory,
The calculation peak is 870 trillion times/second.
This level of supercomputing, let alone a mathematical model, is not a problem even if a hundred mathematical models are calculated together on it.
Of course, model calculations on fluids and turbulence are indeed very complex, but after all, the performance of NTU's supercomputing center is as high as nearly a quadrillion operations per second, so it is impossible that it cannot run.
But he didn't say this. After all, Professor Xu studied mathematical physics and might not know much about computers.
"Come with me, I'll find someone to show you the model first." Professor Zhou Qinglin smiled, took the hard drive and walked towards the laboratory of the supercomputing center.
He is only responsible for controlling the supercomputing center and is not a specialized expert.
As for how much computing power the plasma turbulence model created by Professor Xu requires, how many computing cores need to be divided, etc., these still need to be determined through expert judgment.
"Old Liu, come here and help me. Professor Xu has a mathematical model that he wants to test. Please see how to divide the computing power."
In the laboratory, Zhou Qinglin shouted to another middle-aged man who was busy in front of the computer.
After hearing the shouting, the middle-aged man in the laboratory quickly raised his head and looked over.
"Hey, Professor Xu." Old Liu stood up with a smile and walked over, shaking hands with Xu Chuan warmly.
Xu Chuan responded with a smile: "Professor Liu, how sorry I am to trouble you."
"What's the trouble? Serving Professor Xu, that's what you should do." Old Liu smiled and took the hard drive from Zhou Qinglin. He first connected it to his work computer and scanned it. After confirming that there was no problem, he connected to the supercomputing center.
He clicked on the hard drive and opened the files inside. Lao Liu looked at the data and imaginary graphics displayed on the computer screen. After thinking for a moment, he said: "Professor Xu, your model is probably not simple."
"If we want to conduct a test, I'm afraid we will have to stop most of the other tasks running in the supercomputing center."
On the side, Zhou Qinglin asked curiously: "Is it so complicated?"
Lao Liu nodded: "This is the most complex turbulence model I have ever seen. It is not only a simulation run, but also contains various modules such as phenomenological energy burst simulation, collision simulation, magnetic constraints, etc. It needs to be fully calibrated
For testing, it requires a lot of computing power, and even our supercomputing center may not be able to run it."
Zhou Qinglin swallowed and couldn't help but look at Xu Chuan.
Good guy, a model that cannot be driven by a supercomputer with a theoretical calculation peak of 870 trillion times per second? Is this something that humans can make? This Professor Xu probably has a quantum computing brain.
After careful inspection and analysis, Old Liu raised his head and looked at Xu Chuan and said, "Professor Xu, if you want to test this model, I'm afraid you need to wait until some of the tasks being executed are finished or can be paused to free up the computing power.
alley."
Xu Chuan asked: "How long do I need to wait?"
Old Liu: "Is it urgent? If it is urgent, it will take about a day or two. Director Zhou will contact the school and suspend other tasks first."
"If you are not in a hurry, you will have to wait for about a week. There are a lot of calculations being done at the moment and it will take some time."
Hearing this, Xu Chuan thought for a while, looked at Zhou Qinglin and asked, "Can you please help me communicate with Director Zhou? Let's test it first. If the model can't be run here, I can apply for help from the National Supercomputing Center."
Zhou Qinglin said with a smile: "No problem, there are no important tasks recently, so it doesn't matter if you take a break."
.......
After Zhou Qinglin applied for communication with NTU, notices and documents regarding the suspension of other computing tasks came out quickly.
Although some researchers who were doing calculations complained after receiving the notice, no one said anything after hearing that Professor Xu had jumped in the queue.
After all, it’s not that I won’t follow up with you, it’s just a pause.
In the supercomputing center, after two days of tossing, all the running computing tasks were suspended and saved in an orderly manner.
After these things were processed, Xu Chuan's mathematical model was officially connected to the supercomputer.
In the control room of the supercomputing center, Xu Chuan, wearing a white anti-static suit, watched the staff responsible for processing operations busy in front of the computer.
Next to him, Zhou Qinglin and Lao Liu stood waiting curiously.
This is the first time they have seen a mathematical model for simulating plasma turbulence in a controllable nuclear fusion reactor. If this model can be successfully calculated, it will definitely be a Nobel Prize-level achievement for the physics community!
"All computing tasks in the current supercomputing center have been suspended. The current supercomputing is in good condition and we can start experiments at any time."
In the control room, after being busy for a while, a staff member reported the supercomputing situation to Zhou Qinglin.
Hearing this, Zhou Qinglin glanced at Xu Chuan, and Xu Chuan smiled and said: "Professor Zhou, you just direct. I don't understand this aspect."
"Okay." Zhou Qinglin nodded, turned around and ordered: "Start testing."
........
After the order was issued, the huge supercomputing center began to operate.
The supercomputer with a theoretical calculation peak of 870 trillion times per second used all its computing power after pausing other computing tasks. The twice-copied model was delivered to the computer in less than one second.
In the permission account assigned in advance.
The staff in the control room quickly allocate nodes, cores and other computing resources as required.
Although the scene of more than 900 computing nodes and 20,000 CPU cores working together is invisible to the naked eye, in the microscopic world composed of 0s and 1s, this is an extremely huge torrent that has never faced any situation in the past.
Opponents are always invincible.
But today, they meet their real opponents.
The plasma turbulence model composed of mathematical formulas and operating rules quickly decomposes into tens or even hundreds of billions of turbulent micro-unit structures after inputting simulation parameters.
These turbulent structures rapidly evolved with the support of supercomputing and models to form a donut-like computing rule, which slowly ran in the supercomputer, simulating the plasma flow in a controllable nuclear fusion reactor.
Looking at the images and data jumping on the screen, Lao Liu, who is responsible for managing the computing power, couldn't help but shake his head.
Just as he predicted before, the supercomputer at the NTU Supercomputing Center really cannot afford this model.
The initial operation was fine, and the computing power of the supercomputing center was sufficient. However, as the simulation parameters were input as required after the operation started, the output of data became slow.
This means that the supercomputing center will take longer to complete the operation and calculation of the model.
Although the results can be calculated reluctantly, everyone in the control room knows that this does not make any sense for a mathematical model that requires real-time control.
Turning his head, Old Liu glanced at Xu Chuan and sighed: "Your model is too complicated and requires too many calculations of turbulence. In China, perhaps only the top ten national computing centers can test it perfectly."
Xu Chuan stared at the screen, looking at the data above and replied: "Let's take a look at it first, just treat it as data collection."
Lao Liu shook his head and said, "That's all we can do."
In the control room, Zhou Qinglin couldn't help but clicked his tongue while looking at the calculated data on the screen.
The computing performance of NTU’s supercomputing center is not only among the top three, but at least among the top five among universities across the country, it can’t even produce a mathematical model.
How did Professor Xu's brain work to create such a model?
Shaking his head, he looked at Xu Chuan and asked: "If such a complex model is really applied to controllable nuclear fusion, wouldn't it be necessary to build a separate large-scale supercomputing center for it?"
Xu Chuan shrugged and said: "Why not? As long as it is correct."
Zhou Qinglin just wanted to say that this is a waste of money. You must know that the construction of a supercomputing center often costs more than a billion...
But then I remembered that this is controllable nuclear fusion. If it really works, it seems normal to build a supercomputing center specifically to serve it?
........
ps: (10/10 for the leader of the alliance, Gaoshan Liushui. Huh, the update for the boss is finally done. There are still some scattered rewards and other things left. Please write slowly.)
There will be another chapter tonight, please vote for me.