“Nearly a petabyte of Solidigm storage computes Pi to 105 trillion digits
After successfully breaking the speed record for calculating pi to 100 trillion digits last year, the team at StorageReview has taken it up a notch, revealing all the numbers of Pi up to 105 trillion digits! Spoiler: the 105 trillionth digit of Pi is 6!
Owner and Editor-in-Chief Brian Beeler led the team that used 36 Solidigm SSDs (nearly a petabyte) for their unprecedented capacity and reliability required to store the calculated digits of Pi. Although there is no practical application for this many digits, the exercise underscores the astounding capabilities of modern hardware and an achievement in computational and storage technology.
Says Beeler, “Calculating Pi to 105 trillion digits was no small feat. It involved meticulous planning, optimization, and execution. Leveraging a combination of open-source and proprietary software, the team at StorageReview optimized the algorithmic process to fully exploit the hardware’s capabilities, reducing computational time and enhancing efficiency.”
For an undertaking of this size, which took 75 days, the role of storage cannot be understated. “For the Pi computation, we’re entirely restricted by storage, says Beeler. “Faster CPUs will help accelerate the math, but the limiting factor to many new world records is the amount of local storage in the box. For this run, we’re again leveraging Solidigm D5-P5316 30.72TB SSDs to help us get a little over 1P flash in the system. These SSDs are the only reason we could break through the prior records and hit 105 trillion Pi digits.”
Not resting on their laurels, the StorageReview team aims to push the Pi envelope even further with Solidigm’s D5-P5336 61.44TB SSDs. “We’ve reviewed the drives and have many social media posts showcasing these amazingly dense drives,” says Beeler. With a twinkle in his eye, he muses… “With 32 D5-P5336 61.44TB SSDs approaching 2PB of storage, just how long will how long that 105 trillion record stand?!” All we can say is - stay tuned.
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