IBM Continues Supercomputing Dominance
IBM Corp. continues to dominate the world of supercomputing, according to the recently released TOP500 List. The list, which is compiled by the University of Mannheim and the University of Tennessee every six months, lists computers by their performance according to the Linpack benchmark.
IBM has 201 systems on the list, the most of any vendor. The company scored six of the top ten positions, including the Number 1 and Number 2 spots: the classified ASCI White at Lawrence Livermore National Lab and the unclassified system at the National Energy Scientific Computing Center. IBM leads the findings in Linux-based supercomputing, as well. And Big Blue has three of the top 10 clustered supercomputers, according to a separate list compiled by the TOP500 researchers.
Other vendors are well-represented on the list. Sun Microsystems Inc. took second place with 81 systems, though none were in the top 50. With 63 systems, SGI is third on the list, followed by Cray Inc. and NEC Corporation.
However, Hewlett-Packard Co. made a dent by capturing 41 spots, up from five spots last November. All the other top vendors -- IBM, Sun, SGI, Cray and NEC -- dropped.
Other findings from the TOP500 research include:
- Total accumulated performance is 108.8 TFlop/s compared to 88.1 Tflop/s in November.
- The entry point rose from 55.1 GFps TO 67.8 GFps
- The United States remains the top supercomputer user and producer.
For more information, visit http://top500.org/.
Rank | Manufacturer | Computer | Country |
1 | IBM | ASCI White,SP Power3 375 MHz | USA |
2 | IBM | SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way | USA |
3 | Intel | ASCI Red | USA |
4 | IBM | ASCI Blue-Pacific SST,IBM SP 604e | USA |
5 | Hitachi | SR8000/MPP | Japan |
6 | SGI | ASCI Blue Mountain | USA |
7 | IBM | SP Power3 375 MHz | USA |
8 | NEC | SX-5/128M8 3.2ns | Japan |
9 | IBM | SP Power3 375 MHz | USA |
10 | IBM | SP Power3 375 MHz | USA |
Source: TOP500 List