Development of technology and computer architecture – from 1-processor serial computers to supercomputers
On October 26, 2021 the third lecture of our „Supercomputing in science“ series took place on the premises of the Computational centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences Doc. Šperka, who is also responsible for the Computer museum, showed development of computer architectures and it’s components, such as CPU, GPU and RAM.
Computational power increased thanks to new technologies and innovations in semiconductor device fabrication and enabled doubling the number of components per integrated circuit every two years – this trend is described by the Moore’s law. However, we are now approaching physical limits in this area.
Another way of speeding up calculations is to use parallel approach, supported by today’s supercomputer architectures, including high-speed interconnecting network. Doc. Šperka described the history from the first parallel vector computers and Cray-1 supercomputer up to modern supercomputers.
Lecture series is a joint activity of the Computer museum COO SAS and National Competence Center for HPC. NCC, as the primary contact point for HPC in Slovakia, covers, among other things, educational and dissemination activities in this area.
You can watch the recording of the event on Facebook and YouTube and you can already register for our next lectures. Schedule and registration:
- 10. novembra 2021 o 17:00 – Operation systems in multiprocessor clusters
Dušan Bernát (Faculty of mathematics, physics and informatics, Comenius University) - November 23, 17:00 - Short guide to software parallelization
Jaroslav Suchánek (Biomedical Research Center, SAS) - December 7, 17:00 - Federated distributed computing
Ladislav Hluchý (Institute of Informatics SAS) - December 21, 17:00 - Modelling of 2D systems properties using the Quantum Monte Carlo methods
Ivan Štich (Institute of Physics SAS)
More information about the series
How Projects Addressing AI in Industry Are Created 2025 19 Nov - Umelá inteligencia sa stáva neoddeliteľnou súčasťou európskeho priemyslu aj výskumu a zásadne mení spôsob, akým vznikajú inovatívne projekty. Európska komisia preto prichádza s dvomi novými AI stratégiami – jednou zameranou na aplikovanie umelej inteligencie v kľúčových priemyselných sektoroch a druhou na vedecké využitie AI. Tieto iniciatívy prinášajú nové investičné a projektové príležitosti aj pre slovenské inštitúcie a firmy, najmä prostredníctvom programu Horizont Európa.
Online Lecture: HPC & AI – Competition or Collaboration? 7 Nov - On 26 November 2025 at 10:00, we are hosting a special online lecture dedicated to the rapidly evolving topic of the interplay between high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI). Our guest will be Erwin Laure, one of the most prominent figures in the European HPC ecosystem.
Success story: The Future of Soil Hidden in Data 5 Nov - High-Performance Computing (HPC) offers researchers the ability to process enormous volumes of data and uncover connections that would otherwise remain hidden. Today, it is no longer just a tool for technical disciplines – it is increasingly valuable in social and environmental research as well. A great example is a project that harnessed the power of HPC to gain deeper insight into the relationship between humans, soil, and the landscape.






