Comment "and they halt operations when they do so" (Score 5, Informative) 112
This is only true in certain types of supercomputers. The only one we have that will do this is an SGI UV-1000. It surfaces groups of blades as a single OS image. If one goes down, the kernel doesn't like it.
The rest of our supercomputers are clusters and are built so that node deaths don't effect the cluster at large. Someone may need to resubmit a job, that's all. If they are competent, they won't even lose all their progress by using check-pointing.
Sensationalist titles are sensationalist I guess.