IBM turns supercomputing power to fighting coronavirus
The fight against the coronavirus has a new ally: supercomputers.
IBM, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and the Department of Energy announced Sunday they are spearheading the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium, which aims to use supercomputers to study the coronavirus.
Google, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft are also part of the consortium.
Supercomputers owned by tech companies, the government, and research institutions are capable of running complex experiments much more quickly than a traditional computer, let alone a puny human brain.
These things are physically huge, too: a supercomputer called Frontier, housed at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, is set to be the world's most powerful supercomputer when it's completed in 2021. It will weigh over 1 million pounds and is the size of two basketball courts.
Researchers whose proposals are accepted by the consortium will get access to the computing power of 16 supercomputers located across the United States.
Coronavirus research initiatives that use supercomputers are already underway. IBM shared that its Summit machine, which it calls "the most powerful supercomputer on the planet," has been used to help researchers identify the molecular compounds that have the best chance of binding to, and therefore neutralizing, the spikes used by the coronavirus to infect healthy cells.
"They were able to recommend the 77 promising small-molecule drug compounds that could now be experimentally tested," IBM's announcement of the initiative reads. "This is the power of accelerating discovery through computation."
Other consortium members include MIT and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a host of Department of Energy national laboratories (where many of the supercomputers are actually housed), and NASA and the National Science Foundation.
Even as the citizens of cities and countries stay at home to fight coronavirus, it's good to know the biggest brains in the world — human and machine — are on the case, too.
-
Spaceship tech slashes energy usage of existing AC systemsIn defense of Snapchat, a manifesto'Who is this for' meme asks the questions on everyone's mindEmmys 2018: The full list of nominationsAbrar Ahmed returns as Pakistan names squad for second Test against BangladeshFamilies separated at the border can't afford to be reunited. Here's how you can help.“4.20”芦山强烈地震纪念馆开始征集布展资料The first giant dinosaur was a huge weirdo“精致小春姐”顾春芳:华丽白西装、镶钻水晶拖鞋,带来新兴凉果No.1Oregon occupier David Fry said some weird stuff.
下一篇:'Hyundai Way': Auto giant's W121tr plan aims to seize mobility market lead
- ·Apple Watch bands: 5 favorites to consider as Apple Watch 10 looms
- ·Donald Trump switched to an iPhone and that call for an Apple boycott seems so far away now
- ·Twitter just killed the default 'egg' profile photo
- ·7 ways online dating became more advanced in 2016
- ·16 of the Most Epic Sandwiches Around the Planet
- ·Here's what we learned from Travis Kalanick's hidden 2007 Twitter account
- ·Lava bomb hits tour boat in Hawaii and injures 23 people
- ·Lava bomb hits tour boat in Hawaii and injures 23 people
- ·“精致小春姐”顾春芳:华丽白西装、镶钻水晶拖鞋,带来新兴凉果No.1
- ·部门联动 重拳整治“黑三轮”
- ·Justice to review San Francisco police amid discrimination complaints.
- ·Twitter just killed the default 'egg' profile photo
- ·What Ever Happened to Winamp?
- ·Obama claims dictators want Trump's victory because he gave them everything
- ·Trevor Noah offers thoughtful response to French ambassador upset over World Cup joke
- ·Man eats any food on camera at the internet's request, and it gets weird
- ·Kamala Harris’ ridiculous problem with the political press.
- ·Why Apple is cracking down on 'free' apps
- ·'Big three' plan to help lowest
- ·Twitter's new replies are a total nightmare
- ·Sinner vs. Michelsen 2024 livestream: Watch US Open for free
- ·North Korea steps up virus control along inter
- ·Obama announced historic Cuba visit. What it means.
- ·部门联动 重拳整治“黑三轮”
- ·The Weird, Wonderful World of Water Towers
- ·Republicans who voted against internet privacy got paid out
- ·Yoon approves labor minister's appointment
- ·市委农工委 强好农业底座 助推一产发展
- ·Here's what we learned from Travis Kalanick's hidden 2007 Twitter account
- ·Almost 80 percent of 2017's ICOs were scams
- ·Swifties for Kamala raises over $100,000 in donations for Harris campaign
- ·Court rejects arrest warrant for Samsung BioLogics CEO
- ·Hands on with the 2018 MacBook Pro keyboard
- ·汉源县:2014年21个补助新建花椒烘干房通过验收
- ·Klarna CEO reveals plan to reduce workforce by 50% and replace it with AI
- ·Japan vows action if S. Korea hurts companies in trade row