Post by Bozur on Nov 15, 2005 17:48:58 GMT -5
World's Fastest Computer Gets Even Faster
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 14, 2005
SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 13 - A computer built by I.B.M. that has been at the top of the list of the world's 500 most-powerful supercomputers widened its lead in the latest ranking, set to be released Monday.
The computer, named Blue Gene/L, which operates at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, has doubled its performance to 280.6 trillion calculations a second (teraflops), up from 136.8 teraflops from the list released in June. The system, which is used to study the United States nuclear stockpile and perform other research, was officially completed this summer after it was doubled in size. Researchers expect it will hold the top spot for the foreseeable future.
"This is as fast as this will get under the contract we have, but it's not limited to be only this fast," said David Turek, vice president of deep computing at International Business Machines. "If Livermore were to have an interest in taking it bigger, we could do that."
I.B.M. built the top three systems on the list by the Top 500 project, an independent group of university computer scientists who release supercomputer rankings every six months.
I.B.M. built 43.8 percent of the systems on the entire list. The No. 2 machine is another Blue Gene system, with performance ranked at 91.2 teraflops. It is installed at I.B.M.'s Thomas Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. The No. 3 system, also at Lawrence Livermore, reached 63.4 teraflops in the test.
Hewlett-Packard is the No. 2 manufacturer, with 33.8 percent of the machines on the list. No other computer maker has more than 7 percent in any category.
Of the chip makers, Intel microprocessors were used in a total of 333 systems, with 81 using the company's EM64T technology. I.B.M. chips are in second place, with its Power microprocessors at the heart of 73 systems.
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: November 14, 2005
SAN JOSE, Calif., Nov. 13 - A computer built by I.B.M. that has been at the top of the list of the world's 500 most-powerful supercomputers widened its lead in the latest ranking, set to be released Monday.
The computer, named Blue Gene/L, which operates at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, has doubled its performance to 280.6 trillion calculations a second (teraflops), up from 136.8 teraflops from the list released in June. The system, which is used to study the United States nuclear stockpile and perform other research, was officially completed this summer after it was doubled in size. Researchers expect it will hold the top spot for the foreseeable future.
"This is as fast as this will get under the contract we have, but it's not limited to be only this fast," said David Turek, vice president of deep computing at International Business Machines. "If Livermore were to have an interest in taking it bigger, we could do that."
I.B.M. built the top three systems on the list by the Top 500 project, an independent group of university computer scientists who release supercomputer rankings every six months.
I.B.M. built 43.8 percent of the systems on the entire list. The No. 2 machine is another Blue Gene system, with performance ranked at 91.2 teraflops. It is installed at I.B.M.'s Thomas Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. The No. 3 system, also at Lawrence Livermore, reached 63.4 teraflops in the test.
Hewlett-Packard is the No. 2 manufacturer, with 33.8 percent of the machines on the list. No other computer maker has more than 7 percent in any category.
Of the chip makers, Intel microprocessors were used in a total of 333 systems, with 81 using the company's EM64T technology. I.B.M. chips are in second place, with its Power microprocessors at the heart of 73 systems.