CHAPTER 2:1
THE SUPERCOMPUTER
Also known as The Supercalculator, the Supercomputer is the driving force behind all of Lyokos functions.
The Supercomputer externally resembles a super-sized version of the supercomputers developed by Samuel Crays Cray Research company between the 1970s and 1990s, the same period that Project Carthage was active. Given the curious coincidence of the dates, it is likely that the Supercomputer had its genesis with Project Carthage as well.
It is likely that Hopper was not at the outset involved with this project which most likely sought to create a competitor to Crays best supercomputers of the time, the Cray-1 (most powerful in the world 1976-1982) and Cray X-MP (most powerful 1983-1985). Cray was also at the time developing his next generation Cray-2, which ruled the market from 1985-1990.
If this is the case then no-doubt some industrial espionage was carried out in order to obtain blueprints and specifications of Crays machines in order to reverse-engineer them.
Hopper most likely became involved with the project after he invented Exertanium, and Project Carthages leaders realised the potential of a room-temperature-superconductor for supercomputer applications. In all the Cray machines, liquid cooling was required in order to remove the vast heat generated by the processors, but if constructed from Exertanium a supercomputer would generate near to no heat at all.
At this point, possibly around 1982/3, Hopper would have been split between his own work and the supercomputer project, explaining why development of the scanners took so long. However to Lyoko this division of labour was essential without it Hopper, a physicist, would never have become a skilled computer technician and programmer, and could never have built the programming of Lyoko.
Crays pirated technology, coupled with the superconductivity of Exertanium would have produced an incredibly powerful machine, but this power was boosted still further by a stroke of genius which was probably not Hoppers. Sometime between Hopper joining the group and his leaving the Project, the supercomputer was reconfigured as a Quantum Computer. It must be said though, if Hopper didn't think of this idea, his genius as a Qauntum Physicist probably contributed to it's sucess.
It would seem likely that when Project Carthage became focused on military applications the team developing the computer left with Hopper (who must have seen the potential of the computer for operating his Zero-Point-Engine). As for where they are now, and whether or not they helped physically construct the factory complex, remains to be seen. It also raises the question of whether Carthage retains any of their work, indeed, any of the fantastic technologies developed both by this group and Franz Hopper...
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Hardware
In the Cray 1 and X-MP supercomputers the central tower of the computer housed the logic-boards in horizontal formations these are circuit-boards housing all the processors. The lower ring around the tower housed the cooling systems, and separate hard-drive banks were used for memory space. The Cray-2 went on to retain the tower configuration, but removed the lower ring for a larger, external cooling unit.
In some ways the Supercomputer copies the first configuration the tower is still the actual Processor and the lower ring contains a small cooling system, but also the hard-drives which compromise the entire complexs memory space, as well as the Power Drive and the modems/connections that link the computer into the local netowrks, internet, phone-lines, TV recievers etc.
The processors of the Supercomputer are based on Vector-Processors. These are CPUs capable of running multiple elements simultaneously, and though not new innovations have been mostly forgotten. The majority of computers nowadays are Scalar Processor (single element processors) with some limited Vector capacity. However IBM, Toshiba and Sony have recently developed a multiple-vector CPU known as the Cell Processor, which forms the basis of the Playstation 3. As they are so similar, we will henceforth refer to the Supercomputers processors as Cell Processors.
Multiple Cell Processors are contained in each logic-board (how many could range from two, to a dozen, or to any reasonable number), and then hundreds of these boards are racked in vertical formations inside the tower, which contains little else but the logic-boards, the internal clocks and all the required connections. With little space given over to cooling systems and empty-space, this makes the Supercomputer Tower pound-for-pound the most powerful CPU in the world.
The multiple CPUs in each Logic-Board, and the Tower as a whole, are arranged, configured and programmed to exploit Parallel Processing allowing multiple CPUs to tackle a single problem. This replicates the processing functions of a brain, bringing the thought processes and structure of the supercomputer closer to that of a human-brain than to an artificial construct, with all the benefits that entails.
Each Logic-Board also contains some memory-space this allows greater flexibility as a set portion of the computer can be assigned to specific tasks, permanently running programs which are located elsewhere. In Routine XANA corrupted several of the logic-boards in a bank assigned to the Virtualisation/Devirtualisation process. Jeremie tried to rectify this by swapping out the logic-boards and replacing with uncorrupted ones from elsewhere in the computer. Had he been able to finish this task it would have worked, as each board is identical and the computer would have quickly reprogrammed the new boards to do the tasks of the old ones.
The other advantage of giving each board memory space is that it also allows vital or urgently-needed programs and data to be kept close to hand, speeding the recovery time should it be needed. For this to work the Tower employs a NUMA-system (Non-Uniform-Memory-Access) in all of its logic boards. Should for example, Odd have only 10 life-points left and is likely to need a sudden Devirtualisation, his data is automatically moved from the hard-drives to some of the logic-boards in preparation for a rapid upload to the scanners.
The main memory space of the computer however is located in the lower ring, and is comprised of several hundred hard-drives. In theory one could just use conventional PC hard-drives here and they would work well, but in so doing you would invoke Amdhals Law. Where applied to computers this states that improvements to one part of the system will only give a minimal improvement to the rest. i.e. using slower, weaker hard-drives would cancel out the amazing processing power of the CPU Tower.
In order to solve this problem, the lower ring also contains a number of logic-boards, with the Cell Processors functions split among the hard-drives in order to speed the upload and download of data.
The memory banks extend right around the ring, and are segmented into sections for example a large section is given over to the storage of Lyokos data, as well as sections for XANA, the monsters, the kids etc. There are also segments of memory dedicated to the scanners (where Jeremie was trapped in Fronteir), vacant space, and the infamous Restricted Access sections where Jeremie stores Franz Hoppers diary and all of the programs he created himself.
Finally, within each section the data is split over the hard-drives. For example, a single file could be spread over several drives in order to allow the supercomputer to have faster access to it (instead of one disc taking 10 nano-seconds to upload a single file, 10 drives could each upload a tenth of the file in the same nano-second, a tenfold reduction in time). This is called Data-Striping.
The computer however also gains speed and power from other techniques, employing Quantum Physics in areas outside of its programming;
The hardware, every piece of circuitry, is not based on conventional hardware none of the circuit switching is transistor based, instead employing Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum hardware these do not use voltage levels to convey data, as do conventional computers instead they use tiny electrical impulses (the smallest electrical pulses known to man as a matter of fact, the lowest Quanta of energy), effecting a massive saving in electrical consumption.
The bedrock of this technology is made up of tiny electrical devices known as Josephson Junctions these are used to switch the pulses, much like transistors switch current we will return to these devices when we move onto the scanners.
Throughout every system, from the logic boards to the hard-drives, the Josephson Junctions and all the interconnecting wires the metal used is Exertanium. Its superconductivity allows incredibly precise calculations to take place, and it speeds the flow of data to phenomenal levels and allows more hardware to be crammed together as the heat emissions are reduced to negligible levels.
Of course any mechanical system generates heat despite the use of Exertanium, and in the Supercomputer most of the heat generated is in the memory-banks, due to the moving parts in the hard-drives. A small internal cooling system is used to keep the temperature stable.
The affects of heat on computers is however exploited by The Supercomputer in many supercomputers the processor often runs at a speed the rest of the system cant keep up with wasting power. The Supercomputer however, when not running at full speed, is held below floor-level in a tank of lukewarm water the heat creates resistance in the Exertanium and slows the processor to efficient levels for normal operations (obviously all components are waterproof) while not raising the temperature in the memory-banks high enough to damage them or their cooling system.
Modems
Though not strictly a portion of the supercomputer essential to its function, the modems are an integral part of the computer and indeed of the entire complex.
The modems are the points where all data enters and leaves the supercomputer they are arranged in a ring inside the lower section of the computer and handle the flow of data. They also use the same advanced technologies as the supercomputer itself.
As their name suggests the modems are also the points where the supercomputer interacts with the outside world, though no physical connections are involved to prevent an external agency tracing pirate signals back to the computer;
Each modem contains a permenent SAP, designed to monitor ZPS, initially for research, gradually for more and more agressive purposes.
By sensing electromagnetic disturbances in ZPS caused by the Multidimensionality effect, the modem sensors can build a virtual model of reality - much like sonar and radar. It is through these modems as well that subjects are 'tagged' and tracked - by sensing the tiny ZPS distortions caused by neural patterns the computer can keep an eye on a number of targets, and also take 'snapshots' of those neural patterns for an RTTP. The modems can also relay data to these minds as part of the RTTP program.
The modems also serve as the point for passive access to and from Lyoko - the communications program is designed to monitor for electromagnetic transmissions in the region and then trace the source for SAP hacking - thus the computer has internet, satalite TV, modile phone, terrestrial and cable TV, land-line phone and radio capacity.
By hacking the networks in this manner the pirate signal can't be traced - from the position of those monitoring the network transmissions and signals just 'vanish' in a Bermuda Triangle effect.
The modems can also be abused to create spectres - for this XANA had to devise his own program to piggy-back onto the preexisting ones. Because his program is not a pre-existant one however, it can't derive it's power from the PD - instead it has to leech it from external networks. It also has to be run from a tower rather than as an internal function.
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Software
The most note-worthy element of the Supercomputers programming is that it is not written in conventional computer coding.
All computer programs to-date are written in Binary, a series of 1s and 0s. These stand for bits of data which are either on(1), or off(0). From these the computer performs all its tasks.
The Supercomputer however is the first ever Quantum Computer where the bits can be either on, off, or both at the same time. This phenomena is based on Quantum Physics and is known as a Qubit. Curiously, a Qubit can be in several different Quantum states at a time, and if one can assign numerical values to each state one can program a computer in Qubits rather than bits and bytes.
In short, this is what Project Carthage did for the whole of Season 1 the computer was encoded in the numerical form 0-9 as opposed to 0-1. The increase in processing speed and power this meant was phenomenal, and ensured that two decades after first designed, the Supercomputer is the most powerful computing device made by human hands.
Moreso in fact, for in the episode A Great Day the computer autonomously reached an unforeseen threshold from continual number-crunching of data it gained the ability to recognise an eleventh Qubit. XANA sped this process by infecting the RTTP program and triggering off several time-wipes in order to cram as much data as possible through the CPU. Once done it would seem XANA rewrote all of the programming he could to include the new Qubit, thus condensing data in the computer and boosting overall processing power. With surplus processing power, he was finally able to possess human beings.
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Processing Power
Just what kind of processing power the supercomputer can put out is questionable developed in the 1980s on Cray technology by all rights it should be laughably low, and yet it daily handles the phenomenal data of multiple human DNA strands, as well as its own complex operations and those of the scanners, STM and maintaining human consciousnesses in an virtual environment, as well as supporting XANA, Lyoko and all that is contained therein.
This fantastic processing power can be attributed to all of the unusual technologies employed in the computers design and building upon Cray's tested and established framework, in summary the following;
Exertanium Components
Multiple-Vector or Cell Processor CPUs
Paralell Processing
Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum hardware and Josephson Junctions
NUMA (Non-Uniform-Memory-Access)
Data-Striping
Quantum Encoding
Your modern Personal Computer with a Penitum 4 Processor will achieve a processing power of a few Gigaflops (10 to the power of 9 Floating-point Operations Per Second). In comparison Sonys new Playstation 3, employing a Cell Processor, has a total system performance of 218 Gigaflops.
To date, the fastest supercomputer in the world is the Blue Gene/L prototype developed by IBM. Composed of 32,768 silicon and binary-based processors it achieved a speed of 280.6 Teraflops (10 to the power of 12) on March 25th 2005. Its successor, Blue Gene, will contain 131,072 processors.
With this is mind, it is likely that the Supercomputer works at a higher rate than the Blue Gene projects, possibly pushing out of the high Teraflop range and into the hereto undreamed of Petaflop range (10 to the power of 15).
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Functions
The Supercomputer is the most vital part of all the complex one could destroy the scanners, STM and console and not do one iota of damage to Lyoko or those contained therein. In its memory banks the computer houses all of Lyoko and Carthage, XANA, Aelita for 12 years, Franz Hopper, the kids data and back-up files, as well as all the mundane programs needed for the operation of the complex.
The computer also runs most of the operations in Lyoko supporting the kids, terrain, monsters etc, as well as running and supervising all scanner procedures, returns to the pasts and possessions. It is the impartial army that drives both sides of the conflict.
The computer is also mostly autonomous, capable of supporting its own functions, diagnostics etc with very little human or AI involvement. It should be noted however that neither the kids nor XANA control the computer it is a resource both sides have access to that they exploit if they can to get the upper-hand in their fight.
Of course the different sides can exploit this power in various ways through the control console the kids can utilise the computer to operate external hardware like the scanners and the STM, and some internal hardware like the restricted access memory. XANA on the other hand has influence over Lyoko, and can thus exploit the computer within that virtual realm.
Whatever goes on in their struggle the supercomputer will continue to hum and click away, constantly processing data and becoming more and more powerful, meaning a continual escalation of the conflict as the computer freely supplies memory-space and processing power to whoever needs it.