Tag Archives: Petaflop

Tianhe-2 supercomputer claims the lead in Top 500 list, thanks its 3.1 million processor cores

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As predicted, Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-2 (also known as the Milky Way-2) has now been crowned the most powerful supercomputer in the world. Arriving years ahead of schedule, and packing 32,000 Xeon processors alongside 48,000 Xeon Phi accelerator processors, the supercomputer can manage a quadrillion mathematical calculations per second (33.85 petaflops), double that of last year's king (and closest rival), the Titan. In this year's results, 80 percent of the Top 500 used Intel processors, while 67 percent had processors with eight or more cores -- as clock speeds stall, supercomputer development has now focused on processors running in parallel. Top 500 editor Jack Dongarra adds that "most of the features of the [Tianhe-2] system were developed in China, and they are only using Intel for the main compute part," meaning that you can expect to see more Chinese entrants (and possibly champions) over the next few years. For now, however, the US still claims the majority of the Top 500, with 253 top-ranking supercomputers.

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Via: CNET

Source: Top 500

China’s Tianhe-2 supercomputer could hit 100 petaflops in 2015, may have a race on its hands

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Tianhe-1A supercomputer in China

China's supercomputer development is as much driven by national reputation as by military prowess and science; the country chose to build the Sunway BlueLight MPP with domestic chips knowing that it wouldn't get the absolute performance crown. It won't be quite so modest the next time around. China's National University of Defense Technology wants the Tianhe-2 supercomputer due in 2015 to crack an extremely high 100 petaflops, or five times faster than the record-setting Titan over in the US and a whopping 40 times faster than the Tianhe-1A. Before we hand the crown over, though, Top 500 supercomputer chart keeper Jack Dongarra notes to ITworld that China might have to sprint if it wants the symbolic title: the EU, Japan and US are all striving for the same benchmark, and they're not backing off anytime soon. The nation's trump card may have to be long-term plans for an exaflop-strength supercomputer by 2018, at which point we suspect the bragging will simmer down. For awhile.

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China's Tianhe-2 supercomputer could hit 100 petaflops in 2015, may have a race on its hands originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 01 Nov 2012 03:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Cray’s Jaguar supercomputer upgraded with NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, renamed Titan

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Cray's Jaguar supercomputer upgraded with NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, renamed Titan

Cray's Jaguar (or XK7) supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been loaded up with the first shipping NVIDIA Telsa K20 GPUs and renamed Titan. Loaded with 18,688 of the Kepler-based K20s, Titan's peak performance is more than 20 petaflops. Sure, the machine has an equal number of 16-core AMD Opteron 6274 processors as it does GPUs, but the Tesla hardware packs 90 percent of the entire processing punch. Titan is roughly ten times faster and five times more energy efficient than it was before the name change, yet it fits into the same 200 cabinets as its predecessor. Now that it's complete, the rig will analyze data and create simulations for scientific projects ranging from topics including climate change to nuclear energy. The hardware behind Titan isn't meant to power your gaming sessions, but the NVIDIA says lessons learned from supercomputer GPU development trickle back down to consumer-grade cards. For the full lowdown on the beefed-up supercomputer, hit the jump for a pair of press releases.

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Cray's Jaguar supercomputer upgraded with NVIDIA Tesla GPUs, renamed Titan originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 29 Oct 2012 03:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM’s water-cooled supercomputer saves energy and helps with your heating bill (video)

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IBM builds hotwater cooled supercomputer, consumes 40 percent less energy

IBM's SuperMuc has had a good week. Not only has the three petaflop machine been listed as Europe's fastest supercomputer, but it's also apparently the first high performance computer that's entirely water-cooled. Rather than filling rooms with air conditioning units, water is piped around veins in each component, removing heat 4,000 times more efficiently than air. The hot water is then used to heat the buildings of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre where it lives, saving the facility $1.25 million per year. After the break we've got a video from Big Blue, unfortunately narrated by someone who's never learned how to pronounce the word "innovative."

Continue reading IBM's water-cooled supercomputer saves energy and helps with your heating bill (video)

IBM's water-cooled supercomputer saves energy and helps with your heating bill (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 19 Jun 2012 08:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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