Tech Titans Join Forces to Harness Supercomputer Power Against COVID-19
The fight against COVID-19 has received a significant boost with the formation of the COVID-19 High Performance Computing Consortium. The consortium, led by IBM and comprising Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and several government agencies, aims to harness the power of supercomputers to study the coronavirus.
The supercomputers involved in this effort are capable of running complex experiments at speeds much faster than traditional computers. In fact, one of these machines, called Frontier, is set to be the world's most powerful supercomputer when it's completed in 2021, weighing over 1 million pounds and occupying two basketball courts.
Researchers whose proposals are accepted by the consortium will gain access to the computing power of 16 supercomputers located across the United States. This collaboration has already yielded promising results, with IBM's Summit machine helping researchers identify molecular compounds that could neutralize the coronavirus spikes.