Patent ID: 7765435

Claim:
A method of configuring a supercomputer having a plurality of computing elements, each computing element arranged to provide a core computing capability to store and retrieve data, wherein the method comprises configuring each computing element by: establishing a probability of successful operation of each component of said computing element over a predetermined operating time interval for each component required to operate in order to provide the core computing capability; generating a probability of successful operation of the core computing capability of said computing element based on a combination of the established probability of all components required to operate in order to provide the core computing capability of said computing element; determining a desired probability of successful operation of each said computing element over the predetermined operating time interval that satisfies the following expression: log P >log S/TN where T is the predetermined operating time interval, S is a desired probability of successful operation over the operating time interval T for all N computing elements of the supercomputer, N is a number of the computing elements used during the operating time interval T; and P is the desired probability of successful operation of each said computing element; and if the generated probability is less than the desired probability of successful operation of said computing element over the predetermined operating time interval, either providing at least one redundant component for a least reliable component or substituting the least reliable component with a burnt-in component.