Top 500 supercomputer list out today, seven AMD systems in top 10, only one Intel
Posted On Wednesday, November 19, 2008 at di 9:04 AM by Andri
The International Top 500 list of supercomputers for November, 2008, was published today. Only two computers exceed the Petaflop mark, with the max being 1.105 Petaflops, up from just one in June. The slowest computer in the top 500 came in at 12.6 Teraflops. For only the second time the Top 500 list contains power consumption information. And while the #1 computer is the most powerful, it is also nearly 3x more energy efficient.
Top 10 plus five
In 2007, the #3 computer today would've been #1. In 2006, the #8 would've been #1. And in 2000, the #500 computer today would've 255% faster than the #1 computer. AMD processors can be found in the #1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 slots. Intel comes in only at #3 in the top 10, however 379 of the top 500 systems published include Intel processors, including 222 systems with 45nm processors (32 of which were low-voltage models).
| Rank | Machine | Cores | Performance TFlops | Power KWh | Processor |
| 1 | IBM BladeCenter QS22/LS21 | 129,600 | 1105 | 2483 | PowerXCell and AMD64 |
| 2 | Cray XT5 QC | 150,152 | 1059 | 6951 | AMD64 |
| 3 | SGI Altix ICE 8200EX | 51,200 | 487 | 2090 | Intel |
| 4 | IBM eServer Blue Gene | 212,992 | 478.2 | 2330 | Power |
| 5 | IBM Blue Gene/P | 163,840 | 450.3 | 1260 | Power |
| 6 | Sun SunBlade x6420 | 62,976 | 433.2 | 2000 | AMD64 |
| 7 | Cray XT4 | 38,642 | 266.3 | 1150 | AMD64 |
| 8 | Cray XT4 | 30,976 | 205 | 1581 | AMD64 |
| 9 | Cray Red Storm | 38,208 | 204.2 | 2506 | AMD64 |
| 10 | Dawning 500A | 30,720 | 180.6 | n/a | AMD64 |
| 100 | Sun SunBlade x6250 | 3,440 | 27.4 | n/a | Intel |
| 200 | HP 3000 BL460c | 2,940 | 18.9 | n/a | Intel |
| 300 | HP 3000 BL460c | 2,520 | 16.6 | 281 | Intel |
| 400 | IBM BladeCenter HS21 | 2,944 | 14.5 | 281 | Intel |
| 500 | Dell PowerEdge 1950 | 1,584 | 12.6 | n/a | Intel |
The Top 500 list is published twice per year in June and November. It has been published since June, 1993, where the #1 computer was 18,500x slower than today's number one. This new list was released today to coincide with the Supercomputing Conference held in Austin, Texas. This conference is an annual event and continues throughout the week.