boast 1. v. boastÂ·ed, boastÂ·ing, boasts. v. intr. To talk or write about oneself or something related to oneself in a proud or self-admiring way. v. tr.
A supercomputer is a computer that performs at or near the currently highest operational rate for computers. A supercomputer is typically used for scientific and engineering applications that must handle very large databases or do a great amount of computation (or both).
All the fastest supercomputers in the decade since the Earth Simulator supercomputer have used a Linux-based operating system. As of November 2014, 485 or 97% of the world's fastest supercomputers use the Linux kernel. Of the remaining 3%, the majority run the AIX Unix variant, with one running another Unix variant, one supercomputer running Windows, and one with a mixed operating system.