SDSC Frequently Asked Questions Frequently Asked Questions SDSC welcomes visitors on K-12 school tours and Friday afternoon public tours . We also have a wide variety of VIP and scientific visitors. From all these groups we often hear the same types of questions. Here are just a few. Almost every automobile manufacturer uses a supercomputer for design and crash testing.
Oil companies use supercomputers to analyze satellite and geographical data.
Airplane manufacturers use supercomputers to design and simulate test conditions, since you can't simulate enough variables and get enough speed in a wind tunnel. Earthquake retrofit designs involve complicated equations that can only be run on a machine able to handle billions of calculations. Since 30 government agencies are responsible for monitoring the bay, SDSC helps the agencies understand how the interests of each group affects others. The need for supercomputers is definitely on the rise. As more information becomes available online, there is an ever-increasing need to process and store the load.