The State of the Supercomputers

Inside a large building on UT’s J.J. Pickle Research Campus — once in the boonies north of Austin but now flanked by the upscale Domain development and Q2 Stadium — is a room about the size of a grocery store in a mid-sized town. In that room, where every aisle feels like the frozen aisle, sits row after row of racks, 7 feet tall, each holding stacks of black central processing units. It is tempting to write that these CPUs are quietly figuring out the secrets of the universe, but quiet they are not. All conversations in this room must be shouted, as the whirring of thousands of fans make it as loud as a sawmill. They are on the job around the clock, no bathroom breaks, no weekends, no holidays. Read on here.