IBM Claims Computer Speed TitleBlue Gene/L Tops Japan Unit, Firm Says

Washington Post ^ | 9.29.04 | By Mike Musgrove

[meandog]

Wednesday, September 29, 2004; Page E05

IBM Corp. plans to announce today that it has built the world's fastest supercomputer at one of its facilities in Rochester, Minn., wresting the title from a system in Japan.

Dubbed the Blue Gene/L supercomputer, IBM's new system nudges past a nearly three-year-old computer speed record of 35.86 "teraflops," or trillions of calculations per second, with a working speed of 36.01 teraflops.

[meandog]

Teraflop? I thought that was only Kerry's baliwick?

[Condor51]

Will this effect my Pac-Man game?

[AgThorn]

IBM's own PR:

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BlueGene/L the #1 supercomputer in the world
IBM system surpasses NEC’s Earth Simulator

IBM engineers and researchers in Rochester, Minnesota were the first to know it — BlueGene/L is now the fastest supercomputer in the world. That’s a tall order for a (relatively) “short” stack.

The Blue Gene team in Research and Systems & Technology Group created a system that surpassed NEC’s Earth Simulator using the industry-standard LINPACK benchmark. Yet this powerful system operates at a fraction of the size and power consumption of traditional systems.

Designed as a new approach to cost effective, ultra-powerful supercomputing, BlueGene/L attained a sustained a performance of 36.01 Teraflops, eclipsing the three year old top mark of 35.86 Teraflops for the Earth Simulator. The system is 1/100th the physical size (320 vs 32,500 square feet) and consumes 1/28th the power (216KW vs 6,000KW) as compared to the Earth Simulator.

This is a milestone in the five-year Blue Gene journey, asserting IBM's leadership in high-performance computing. This innovative approach to cost-effective, ultra-powerful (but power efficient) supercomputing, only reflects a fraction of BlueGene/L’s full potential.

The BlueGene/L architecture is adaptable to a range of applications, and will be more affordable than current supercomputing resources due to its smaller physical size and power efficiency. IBM and initial clients (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, ASTRON, Argonne National Laboratory and AIST ) are currently exploring a growing list of applications including hydrodynamics, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, climate modeling and financial modeling.

Onward and upward
The IBM BlueGene/L supercomputer is a work in progress, with much larger systems planned for installation at IBM's TJ Watson Research Center, as well as the Livermore Lab.

For example, the largest planned BlueGene/L machine, scheduled for delivery to the lab in 2005, will occupy 64 full racks, with a peak performance of 360 teraflops. The Advanced Super Computing Program of the National Nuclear Security Administration is a primary collaborator on the Blue Gene project. The University of Caifornia operates the lab for the NNSA.

The BlueGene/L systems are a revolutionary breakthrough in computing, exploiting advanced IBM POWER microprocessors, similar to those used in game machines and consumer devices, and a Linux operating system.

IBM's team of engineers and researchers continue to expand and test the system in anticipation of the upcoming publication of the Top500 Supercomputer list.

For more information concerning this article, please contact Kristin A. Barto (barto@us.ibm.com).

[Red Badger]

An IBM PC circa 1989 8088 5MHz is still faster than I can type......

[AgThorn]

IBM Claims Fastest Computer Title [Wall Street Journal]
IBM Supercomputer Sets World Record for Speed [New York Times]
IBM Claims Computer Speed Title [Washington Post]
IBM supercomputer may be the world's fastest [San Jose Mercury News]
IBM says its superfast supercomputer is No. 1 [San Francisco Chronicle]
IBM Claims Fastest-Computer Title [CNN]

[BipolarBob]

Will this plug-and-play into my Commodore64?

[EQAndyBuzz]

Everquest will be more fun. No more running through Plane of Knowledge at a snails pace.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

For example, the largest planned BlueGene/L machine, scheduled for delivery to the lab in 2005, will occupy 64 full racks, with a peak performance of 360 teraflops.

Very nice.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

More on the BlueGene project here : Assembling life's building blocks

[ChadGore]

Imagine a beowolf cluster of these things (c) slashdot
Ya, but does it run Linux ? (c)slashdot
How many FPS can I get in Doom3 ? (c) (c)slashdot

[antiRepublicrat]

It does run Linux for the IO nodes and IIRC the front-end. The workhorses are a custom lightweight kernel.