Cray has finally clawed IBM back from the lead position on the Top500 Supercomputer chip-measuring contest. After just missing out on the title to
IBM's Roadrunner last year, Cray's XT5 supercomputer (aka,
Jaguar) at Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee received an update from quad- to six-core Opteron processors to boast a 2.3 petaflop per second performance peak (theoretical) and 1.75 petaflops as measured by the Linpack benchmark; a feat requiring almost a quarter million AMD cores. IBM's Roadrunner, the very first supercomputer to race
past the petaflop per second threshold, managed
just 1.042 petaflops by comparison. Remember, one petaflop per second is equivalent to one quadrillion calculations per second. Of course, chip makers put their own spins on the list by noting that 4 of the top 5 systems depend on AMD for performance while Intel can be found powering 402 of the Top500. Video of the AMD processor upgrade procedure can be found after the break.
posted Nov 16th 2009 3:19AM
I'm goign to kill the first person to ask:
"But willl it run Crysis?"
on medium resolution with 800x600 - yes ; on high resolution with 1600x1400 - no
But the real question is; Will it run Crysis 2?
not until you go back home and tell the wife that you built the world's fastest... Oh wait, she doesn't care. :/
These "supercomputers" aren't even impressive anymore. They're not making any great hardware or technological improvements. They're not even making the components. They're just using off the shelf AMD and Intel CPUs.
It's as if whoever has the most money can buy the most number of CPUs and thus has the fastest pseudocomputer.
And it won't even run Crysis (literally).
@Kurian: While it's true that they are using off the shelf processors for the fastest super computers, IBM's supercomputer design is pretty far from 'being off the shelf.' I don't know much about Cray's current computers, but IBM is planned to surpass 10 petaflops by 2012. It's also worth noting that IBM doesn't just use AMD processors. IBM's cell processor is also used in their Roadrunner design. Plus the petaflop was passed over a year ago...where have you been Cray?
* nerdgasm *
AAHHhhh dear god!
CRYSIS JOKES MUST DIE.
I think everyone REALLY wants to know: Will it Blend WHILE running Crysis using a Shamwow and a Smart mop to clean it all up?
Can it run Crysis, etc
hi5!
-------- Is it just me? Or does it seem wrong that the Worlds fastest Computer would be stationed in Tennessee? -------
Boom in the shot... boom in the shot!
If Intel is supposedly king of chips why do supercomputers use AMD opterons for the most part?
Dare I say "because they're cheap"
You didnt read that right.
4 of the top 5 are AMD
HOWEVER
402 of top 500 are intel
Thats 80.4% of the larger sampling having intel. Just an oddity that the very top super computers use AMD, must be a cost issue.
I don't think so, Intel supply 402 out of the top 500, AMD has 42 and IBM have 52, according to el reg anyway. (Yes I know that doesn't add up to 500, I guess the other must be Sparc based)
nah, the remainder will be the old g5 power macs that are still floating around ;)
In corporate and consumer america, you buy products based on the advertising. hence, intel wins.
in the world of engineering, you design the best computer you can. thus, AMD wins the top supercomputer spots.
Because of HyperTransport, it makes for much better Multi-Chip systems.
I bet the lower tier supercomputers are running intel CPU's because they are older, from a time when AMD didn't have a competing product.
One major drawback for Intel is how they keep changing CPU sockets all the time. AMD stays with the same socket for much longer making it easier to upgrade existing hardware with new CPU's.
Sad thing is, AMD do produce good chips. Intel can just pump out new and more advanced chips because their research budget is practically 100x what AMD has to work with.
Hopefully AMD will catch a break with this anti-trust suite they just won, and Intel will be have to stop bribing manufacturers with discounts and AMD chips will appear in more mainstream systems.
The reason the top supercomputers use AMD is because of several factors, most processing of data for energy used, cheap, and they scale better then you are using 4-8 cpus on a motherboard.
I'm no expert on this, by any means, but somehow it seems more significant to me that AMD powers four out of the top five supercomputers than that Intel powers more of the runners-up...
I think it just shows that unless you want to scale up to utterly ridiculous numbers of CPUs-like say, a friggin' quarter million six-core CPUs-that intel processors are going to be faster. The AMD stuff is better for uber-multicore and multicpu configurations but most of us don't run 1.5 million cores.
Then again cost might also be part of the reason since 250,000 intel chips would likely cost a bit more money.
It has 224,256 cores, so it only has 37,376 processors. Each processor is about $1000 each, so it would cost about $37,376,000 for the chips alone although I'm sure they get a nice volume discount. ; )
Man thats quick!!!!
and yes, that is what she said!
Will it run Adobe's Flash?
Yes, but choppy if it's 720p
lol not if its runnin linux haha
hehe cray is microsoft buddy
"hehe cray is microsoft buddy"
No.
in GHZ, how fast is this?
I believe it's 1.75 million Ghz, or 1,750,000 Ghz. That's still a little behind the N270 Atom, but I hear it runs Android nicely.
It's not possible to multiply the Ghz since you can't run processors in series, so it's actually 2.6Ghz overall speed.
Even if you could, it would actually be around 580Thz.
Same reason they don't advertise a quad core Xeon as running at 12Ghz, because you know they would if they could.
And YES, it runs at a true 64 bits bandwidth...mostly. ;)
'cept, it still doesn't have many great games for the platform. ;'(
Still want to see how it fairs against the Playstation or Dreamcast, though.
Yeah he went to college for 4 years to put new chips in day in and day out. This is why I'm not studying computer engineering.
Your mom goes to college
I'm sure he's just happy to still have a job in the tech industry with just a B.S. at his age..
Jaguar, I'm really happy for you, and imma let you finish, but.... oh, you already did.
best innuendo of the day!
That was the best use of that overplayedout line. Well played.
@Todd Clarke it's been 4 days and I'm still laughing...
Never send a coyote to do a jaguar's job.
Will it run OSX?
im gonna kill you for suggesting a rotten fruit for an jaguar. jaguars believe in lucky number 7
petaflop is not a singular version of the abbreviation petaflops
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLOPS
according to the blurb, this thing's is running at 2.3 peta-floating point ops per second per second...meaning it's accelerating?
Seriously:
FLOPS: FLoating point Operations Per Second
petaFLOPS: 2^50 FLoating point Operations Per Second
.. flop: To fail completely.
Sorry for being a stickler but this ain't the times, this is engadget, where tech details matter.
I was wondering how well it played MW2, crysis is so last year
So two years ago, and yet still so much more demanding than MW2 :(
That's because MW2 for the PC is a port of a game built for 5 year old technology
Congratulations to Cray Jaguar...
test..
so...what does it actually do?
Supercomputers are used to run simulations - Nuclear explosions, weather etc.
Hello world... but really quick and many times simultaneously.
of course this would be a speech synthesized hello world... and all the voices would be slightly out of sync giving it a creepy sinister sound
I wonder what happens to the tens of thousands of old processors.
Holy crap, where do I get in line?
I just thought the same thing... that's a lot of processors that could still be put to use.
ebay.
Suck on that Nehalem! Ha ha ha!
Can it run Windows ME without crashing?
Why would you even suggest that? No computer should be subject to that kind of torture.
Swapping thousands upon thousands of chips.....
That must be fulfilling.
It's probably the same as the original old vacuum tube computers that had SO many tubes the expected "power on before tube failure life" went to zero...at least in theory.
can i have the left over processors?
that was pretty interesting actually
NOT UNTIL YOU RUN BACK HOME AND TELL THE WIFE THAT YOU BUILT THE WORLD'S FASTEST... Oh wait, she doesn't care. :/
replying to Dante of the inferno
Does it still come with one controller and Cybermorph packed in?
i remember my first encounter with Mac OS X was Jaguar..... on a 350MHz PowerMac G4....
Is this the new OnLive facility?
So, a bit like lego then?
ok, no grouding required during the assembly... i thought ESD is a precautionary measure for all electronics assemblers... now i learnt.
If the table is grounded/conductive and the person touched it to equalize his charge then there's no need until the person is in a situation where he builds up charge again, but of course he's constantly touching the case on the table equalizing himself again.
Oh and there's are also antistatic ankle strap versions, but I don't think that's used here.
Can anyone say "anti static wrist strap"? :)
I wondered the exact same thing.... it's probably the most expensive piece of hardware the guy has ever handled... and he's not even taking standard precautions I'd use on my gaming rig...
Dude....where's your static strap?
The University of Tennessee's Kraken supercomputer, another Cray XT5 system that's housed at ORNL and was upgraded at the same time as Jaguar, rose to third on the worldwide list with a benchmark rating of 832 teraflops - or 832 trillion calculations per second. - Knoxville News Sentinel
The University of Tennessee's Kraken supercomputer, another Cray XT5 system that's housed at ORNL and was upgraded at the same time as Jaguar, rose to third on the worldwide list with a benchmark rating of 832 teraflops - or 832 trillion calculations per second. - Knoxville News Sentinel
Seems clear that these setups are a bit ill thought out, I can see parallel CPU's being a good thing but when you go beyond a certain amount you should start to rethink the technology and find a way to be better with less parts again.
Safe to assume it is running linux?
http://www.top500.org/system/10184
Yes.
Wow!
And folks were bitching about copyright infringement against Intel for using "bobcat" as an internal beta naming convention the other day. Worried that the Bobcat Custruction Equipment Company might go after Intel.
And here's Cray using "Jaguar" - watch out Apple might behind you - and IBM using Roadrunner - Warner Bothers behind them ?
Those people would be what we call idiots. The Bobcat company and Intel have no overlapping product lines whatsoever and never will...so there is little basis for them to sue. Now if intel were selling construction related equipment under the name Bobcat they might have a leg to stand on.
If it doesn't have a Jeff Minter Virtual Light Machine like the Atari Jaguar, then I'm not interested!
Since when did Wallace Shawn work for cray?
But will it blend?
But will it play Bonk's Adventure?
I want the job of swapping the cpu's!
I'd like to see how well it would do running a weather prediction program. Tired of getting inaccurate weather predictions.
Remember when supercomputer companies designed their own processors (not necessarily CPUs)? This contest of seeing who can put more off-the-shelf CPUs in a box just isn't anywhere near as interesting.
I'm pretty sure this jaguar is more powerful:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atari_Jaguar
Where can I get one of those 8 socket motherboards. Cause that would = nergasm.
yea, i would also like one of those 8 socket mother boards....
one problem though, they don't have a ram, gpu, or hard drive slot... and i kinda need those for my computer...
how bout 8 gpu slots? and like 64 ram slots...
no idea what i would use that for though, my q6600 has more than enough horse power....
I'll get a new gpu in like 2 years, then 8800gt is fine for now, but in 2 years, i want a dx11 card....
I'm fine with ddr2 ram, i might just get some 1333mhz ddr2 ram, but i doubt it, 800mhz seems to run fine...
its kind of funny how in like 25 years ill probably have a pc that is just as powerful or close to it and all i will use it for is checking email reading engadget (if its still around) and watching chocolate rain for the 300th time
It's hard for me to get very excited about this. Yes it's cool, and it's pretty useful to scientists, but it's really just many smaller computers networked together. It's more like a super room full of computers. I think anything you can fit in a standard 8 foot rack is the maximum you should be able to refer to as 1 computer. With this setup it really isn't much of a competition either. If they compared the top computer that fit in one rack, that would be interesting. With this, someone can make the same setup and just add one more rack and then they are the most awesome nerds of all time! Until someone else can afford one more rack.
"Wow, the government spent $19,900,000 to upgrade the 4 core cpus to 6 core cpus! What an accomplishment!" -Me