The most powerful supercomputers in the world – and what they do

Introduction and top tenWe live in the computer age so it's no surprise that a nation's international importance is often measured on the number and the size of supercomputers it runs.After three wins in a row, it was no surprise that Tianhe-2, a supercomputer at China's National University of Defence Technology in Guangzhou, was hailed once again as the world's most powerful system, clocking 33.86 petaflops. The 44th Top 500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers, revealed during Nove