3. They’re big
In supercomputing, size matters. Your laptop is small because it contains only two to four central processing units (CPUs) which is sufficient for you to perform basic tasks such as surfing the internet or creating word documents. Supercomputers are made up of thousands of CPUs packed closely together in rows upon rows of cabinets with very fast networks interconnecting them. This allows a supercomputer to carry out much more complicated functions in the same amount of time or less.
To return to the airport analogy, if each customs counter takes up two square meters of space, to have a thousand of them set up would require proportionately more room. This is why supercomputers like the Tianhe-2 in China occupy a whopping 720 square meters of space. That’s the size of one and a half NBA basketball courts!
