I n the same vei n , in 2010 China made a conspicuous entrance in second place in the S upercomputer Top 500 List, j ust beh i nd the Un ited States, thanks to a motor named N E B U LAE. Its performance benchmark is 1 . 27 petaflops, which translates as the capacity to efect 1 . 27 million b illion operations per second, whereas J aguar, the co mputer in the US Energy D epartment in Tennessee, can achieve 1 . 75 petaflops. Forecast for 2020 is a 'great accelerator calculator' that wi ll be able to attai n an exoflop - o r a billion b il l i o n operat i o n s per seco n d .
We might remember that these motors are used in scientific research , in genetic sequenci ng, b u t especially in the strategic domain touching on national sovereignty. 1
Acco rding to the specialists, the field of application of supercomputing never stops getti ng b igger. S o , geophysicists today are able to p redict, in real time, the aftershocks that follow an earthquake.2 On the other hand, they are currently unable to anticipate the fatal consequences of a CYBERCRASH of great magnitude afecting the whole of the financial system . Yet, it's only too easy to foresee that the automation involved in high-frequency flash trading will lead, tomorrow, to the INTEGRAL ACCIDENT in very-highfrequency high finance!
THE GREAT ACCELERATOR
1 L e Monde, 26 June 2010.
2 Ibid.
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