- Monday, 30 November 2009
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Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for all the wrong reasons - R. Buckminster Fuller
New top 500 supercomputer list tips up
A NEW EDITION of the Top 500 supercomputers list was published today, giving IBM, Intel and even AMD a little something to brag about.
The list, which comes out twice a year and ranks the world’s largest supercomputers, was released at the International Supercomputing conference today.
According to the list, 74.8 per cent of the world’s supercomputers (some 374 systems) use Intel processors, a rise of 4 per cent in six months. This represents the biggest slice of the supercomputer [OK... stop saying supercomputer - Sub Ed] cake for the firm ever. Chipzilla’s Harpertown and Clovertown quad-core chips also showed signs of having the fastest growth rate in the same period, going from 102 to 252 systems.
IBM also had reason to pat itself on the back, not only for smashing through the petaflops barrier with its Roadrunner system, but also for the fact its Power processors surpassed AMD’s Opteron family in this latest list. Apparently 13.6 percent (68 systems) of supercomputers [Aaargh!] use IBM’s Power chips, up seven systems from six months ago. AMD’s Opteron chips only tipped up in 56 systems (11.2 percent), which is down significantly from 78 systems six months ago.
Still, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for AMD as the company boasted in a press release that its technology plays a role in the world’s number one.
A newcomer to the list shot straight in to number 16; Japan’s T2K Open Supercomputer [Please... no more!] System, which also ranks as the number one Supercomputer [sob] in Japan .
The big in Japan 952 node Hitachi T2K, which sits at the University of Tokyo , apparently features Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors and TYAN four socket server platforms.
Apparently, the powerful machine can reach a theoretical peak of about 140 TFlops, which, in case you’re wondering, is a lot of flops by anyone’s standards.
The Specs for the T2K were developed collaboratively by boffins from the University of Tsukuba, the University of Kyoto, and the University of Tokyo.
Japan’s sumo supercomputer boasts cutting edge AMD CoolCore Technology and Independent Dynamic Core Technology, both of which are thought to up energy-efficiency by getting more performance per watt.
The machine’s four Quad Core AMD Opteron processors, bunged into each node of the T2K, are also believed to give the whale-sized Supercomputer [Grrrr] better scalability and advanced floating point processing capabilities. Sounds to us like the rising sun shines out of its backside. µ
L’Inq
Top 500 Supercomputers [Right... that's
it... you're fired]
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Numbers are growing by Second. Blue-Gene L, once Brain of All Crunchers, now at 1/3 Top Speed? All Changes in 4 years from sub hundred petras, is Massive redesign, NOT just some fine tuning.

I too, Speak Japaneses Speak....ooi,ou,yaya, Ho-ho, ouuu. lab-ba-daba-dew.
Drashek
The Cell based system Roadrunner tops the list...

"The 31st edition of the TOP500 list was released at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany. Since 1993, the list has been produced twice a year and is the most extensive survey of trends and changes in the global supercomputing arena. 

“Over the past few months, there were a number of rumors going around about whether Roadrunner would be ready in time to make the list, as well as whether other high-profile systems would submit performance numbers,” said Erich Strohmaier, a computer scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a founding editor of the TOP500 list. “So, as the reports came in during recent weeks, it’s been both exciting and challenging to compile this edition.” 

The Roadrunner system is based on the IBM QS22 blades which are built with advanced versions of the processor in the Sony PlayStation 3, displaces the reigning IBM BlueGene/L system at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. Blue Gene/L, with a performance of 478.2 teraflop/s (trillions of floating point operations per second) is now ranked No. 2 after holding the top position since November 2004."