Blue Gene / L supercomputer again broke the record

IBM has announced a system of 65,536 processing devices, which can perform 280.6 trillion calculations per second, double the record of 136.8 teraflops, considered the fastest in the world by Blue Gene / L itself. here.

Blue Gene / L Blue Gene / L became the fastest supercomputer for the first time ( 70.7 teraflop ) in the Top 500 system rankings a year ago. The system speed is measured by the Linpack mathematical test, but the Top 500 organizers concede that this is still not a complete method.

Blue Gene sells for about $ 2 million each (rack) contains 1,024 processing devices, but IMB also leases access to Blue Gene and other supercomputers for those who do not want to buy the entire system.

In addition, " Big Blue " also launched a very powerful but lesser known system, ASC Purple, with a speed of 100 teraflops. Both ASC and Blue Gene / L cost $ 290 million, and will be used in nuclear weapons analysis and simulation as well as other computer-related tasks. The word "purple" means " purple " - a blend of green, red and white. ASC Purple is designed to achieve the highest level of capabilities in ASCI Red, White and Blue supercomputers. Initially, IBM intended to launch the system in late 2004, but later postponed it because it wanted to switch to a less expensive design.

The Power5 in ASC Purple device is more powerful than Blue Gene / L's Power chip versions, and accesses more memory to run complex emulators. However, Blue Gene / L consumes less power and uses a separate set of 5 networks to connect processing devices, instead of the complex, massive central switch.

TN . ( according to CNet )