Supercomputers help build nuclear weapons, the spacecraft design and production of next-generation drugs. For years, the U.S. arsenal was the biggest and best. Until China came into play.
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is one of the great scientific skill and military symbols of the United States of America. For six decades, the campus quiet, hidden among the hills start from San Francisco to the east, where scientists walk the paths covered by leaves or rushes from one meeting to another riding a bicycle, were made huge progress - such as the discovery of a half dozen or detection elements in the periodic table of the basic components of dark matter, write MONEY EXPRESS.

The most important case for fame Livermore design begins with the most advanced nuclear warhead in the world - this was the mission of the laboratory, when it was created in 1952 by Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb. To do this, Livermore is based on powerful computing machine, called supercomputers, which are buzzing inside top-secret buildings, well guarded. U.S. has long dominated this field. That is why he received news of a Bruce Goodwin, head of the laboratory weapons program, a year ago, was really the capital: the Chinese have made the world's most powerful supercomputer, a machine five times stronger than largest machine in Livermore.

Advantage at work.

For most of us, this may not mean much, can be considered something similar to Apple's launch of a smartphone faster than Microsoft.

But for scientists, industry titans and world leaders who understand how delicate it is, in reality, the position of global superpower America was a new Sputnik moment (the Soviets succeeded in 1957 to launch the first artificial satellite of Earth, surprising jumpstarting the Americans and the space race, part of the Cold War - no). Only that this time Russia was not the score that wins the first game space, but China take the lead in one of the most vital areas of national security. Supercomputers, which use thousands of processors in parallel, not only helps in the design of weapons systems, but also to the development of models of atmospheric changes, the breaking of codes and the development of drugs that can change our lives. Because to get to 500,000 trillion calculations per second, one of the supercomputers at Livermore produce much heat, that, if they fall air conditioning system, the car would start in a few minutes to melt.

Globally, high-performance computer processing is an industry of 25.6 billion dollars, and who holds the first position in the field of economic and military giant advantage. Or, in other words, if the U.S. left behind in the supercomputers, could quickly lose their current advantage in all areas of science, in industries such as oil and gas exploration or pharmaceutical research in military and security. In the race to develop the most powerful computers are at stake both economic prosperity and national security of America.

Action and reaction.

When pressed China last fall's start button Tianhe-1A (also known as the supercomputer "Milky Way"), was placed on top of the tech world with a stunning demonstration of his mastery of fresh engineering. The first Chinese outlet positions proved short-lived, because six months later a team of Japan announced that it has made an even bigger supercomputer, which has pushed the Tianhe-1A second. However, the Chinese said they had to say, showing the world that when it comes to develop latest devices, bigger and faster, inconvenient truth is that no rival. 1 of America, militarily and politically, running shoulder to shoulder with us in an area where the United States have dominated for decades. Experts predict that China will surpass Japan again soon. Already owns 74 of the 500 largest supercomputers in the world, from zero a decade ago, direct from the United States, which have 263. And while the U.S. struggles to finance new projects in the field, China seems to have unlimited resources available to pursue ambitious goals. "We are afraid," said Dona Crawford, head of the department of computer processing from Livermore. "Supercomputers are fundamental to our national security and our economic competitiveness. Even thought we have let it get away? Yes, yes, we are scared. "