news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4111866.stm
Printable version Supercomputers step up the pace Model of lipid molecules, IBM The supercomputer will tackle tricky science problems A partially built supercomputer has kept its spot at the top of the list of most powerful machines on the planet. The BlueGene/L machine currently under construction at the Lawrence Liver more National Laboratory in the US was crowned top number-cruncher. As a result, the organisation drawing up the list expect it to dominate t he rankings for some time to come. Big numbers The Top 500 list is drawn up every six months and is a snapshot of the mo st powerful machines on Earth. IBM's BlueGene/L took the top spot for the second time largely because it s processing capacity doubled in size since the last list was drawn up. When it is finished the machine will use 65,536 processors to tackle prob lems such as molecular dynamics, metrial modelling as well as turbulence and instability in hydrodynamics. As well as dominating the top two places, IBM is the dominant supplier of supercomputers on the list. Silicon Graphics, NEC, Hewlett-Packard and Cray all have machines in the list. Cray's newest machine, the Red Storm, made it to the number 10 slo t on the list. Top supplier of the chips to do the number crunching was Intel. Also, five of the top 10 mach ines listed by the Top 500 organisation are BlueGene computers. Third in the Top 500 list was Nasa's Columbia supercomputer at the Ames R esearch Center in California. In the six months since the last list was drawn up half of the computers listed have been replaced by more powerful machines, a testament to the pace of innovation and to the increasing power found in silicon. The Top 500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim in Germany, Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US and Jack Dongarra of the University of Ten nessee in Knoxville. The 25th edition of the list was unveiled at the International Supercompu ting Conference held from 21-24 June in Heidelberg, Germany.
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