Next, I will take a look at the challenges of programming supercomputers. Business applications typically have small chunks of code called on demand, with run times from milliseconds to seconds.
Supers have large chunks of code, and huge data sets, that run for hours or days.
This difference has begun to blur as commercial use of data mining and analysis of terabyte customer files put supercomputer demands on business systems. In either case, big problems, like weather forecasting or data mining, need big, fast computers. This may not sound difficult, but the difference between a good programming job and an adequate one can cut run times in half or better. That's worth some extra effort. The answers to these questions revolve around the complex nature of supercomputer systems.