Jaguar Chases Roadrunner, but Can’t Grab Top Spot on Latest List of World’s TOP500 Supercomputers

MANNHEIM, Germany, BERKELEY, Calif., and KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—The 32nd edition of the closely watched list of the world’s TOP500 supercomputers has just been issued, with the 1.105 petaflop/s IBM supercomputer at Los Alamos National Laboratory holding on to the top spot it first achieved in June 2008.

The Los Alamos system, nicknamed Roadrunner, was slightly enhanced since June and narrowly fended off a challenge by the Cray XT5 supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory called Jaguar. The system, only the second to break the petaflop/s barrier, posted a top performance of 1.059 petaflop/s in running the Linpack benchmark application. One petaflop/s represents one quadrillion floating point operations per second.

Both of the systems are at national laboratories operated by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Seven of the top 10 systems on the newest TOP500 list are located at DOE facilities. Nine of the top 10 supercomputers are located in the United States. The most powerful system outside the U.S. is the Chinese-built Dawning 5000A at the Shanghai Supercomputer Center. It is the largest system which can be operated with Windows HPC 2008 operating system.

The TOP500 list, which is issued twice a year, will again be the subject of a session at the SC08 conference being held Nov. 15-21 in Austin, Texas. Complete information about the TOP500 list can be found at: top500.org.

Just as the performance levels have increased dramatically, so have the costs of running and cooling such large systems. To help assess the energy efficiency of supercomputers, the TOP500 list is now tracking actual power consumption of supercomputers in consistent fashion. Not only is it the most powerful supercomputer, but Roadrunner is also one of the most energy efficient systems on the TOP500. Roadrunner is based on the IBM QS22 blades which are built with advanced versions of the processor in the Sony PlayStation 3. These nodes are connected with a commodity InfiniBand network.

Here are some other highlights from the November 2008 list:

• A total of 379 systems (75.8 percent) are now using Intel processors. This is virtually unchanged from six months ago (375 systems, 75 percent). Intel continues to provide the processors for the largest share of TOP500 systems.
• The IBM Power processors and the AMD Opteron family are almost tied as second most common processor family with 60 and 59 systems each (12 percent and 11.8 percent). Both had only minor changes from six months ago.
• Quad-core processor based systems have taken over the TOP500 quite rapidly. Already 336 systems are using them. 153 systems are using dual-core processors, and only four systems still use single core processors. Already seven systems use IBMs advanced Sony PlayStation 3 processor with nine cores.
• HP took over the lead in systems with 209 systems (41.8 percent) over IBM with 188 systems (37.6 percent). IBM had 210 systems (42.0 percent) six months ago, compared to HP with 183 systems (36.6 percent). But IBM still stays ahead by overall installed performance.

Highlights from the Rest of the Top 10:

• The No. 3 system called Pleiades is a new SGI Altix ICE system installed at NASA Ames in Moffett Field, Calif.., narrowly grabbing this spot with 487 teraflop/s.
• The No. 4 system is the IBM BlueGene/L system installed at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), with a Linpack performance of 478.2 Tflop/s.
• At No. 5 is a newer version of the same type of IBM BlueGene/P system installed at DOE’s Argonne National Laboratory and it achieved 450.3 Tflop/s.
• The No. 6 system is installed at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas and recently received faster processors. Nicknamed Ranger, it is built by Sun using SunBlade x6420servers and achieved 433.2 TFlop/s.
• The No. 7 system, called Franklin, is the second new Cray XT5 system. It is installed at DOE’s NERSC Center at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and achieved 266.3 Tflop/s.
• The No. 8 system is a Cray XT4 system installed at DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. It achieved a Linpack performance of 205 Tflop/s.
• The No. 9 system is the enlarged Sandia/Cray Red Storm system. It is installed at DOE’s Sandia National Laboratories and achieved 204.2 Teraflop/s.

General highlights from the Top 500 since the June 2008 edition:

• The entry level to the list moved up to the 12.64 Tflop/s mark on the Linpack benchmark, compared to 9.0 Tflop/s six months ago.
• The last system on the current list would have been listed at position 267 in the previous TOP500 just six months ago.
• Total combined performance of all 500 systems has grown to 16.95 Pflop/s, compared to 11.7 Pflop/s six months ago and 6.97 Pflop/s one year ago.
• The U.S. is clearly the leading consumer of HPC systems with 291 of the 500 systems (up from 257). The European share (151 systems – down from 184) is settling down after having risen for some time, but is still substantially larger then the Asian share (unchanged at 47 systems).
• Dominant countries in Asia are Japan with 18 systems (down from 22), China with 16 systems (up from 12), India with 8 systems (up from 6).
• In Europe, UK remains the No. 1 with 45 systems (53 six months ago). Germany fell steeply but is still in the No. 2 spot with 24 systems (46 six months ago).

The TOP500 list is compiled by Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim, Germany; Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of NERSC/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; and Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Resource - TOP500

Vendors share for 11/2008

In addition to the table below, you can view the visual charts using the TOP500 charts page. A direct link to the charts is also available.

Vendors	Count	Share %	Rmax Sum (GF)	Rpeak Sum (GF)	Processor Sum
Cray Inc.	22	4.40 %	2486731	3226223	376309
Dell	19	3.80 %	569640	774686	82250
Fujitsu	3	0.60 %	84140	100310	10240
Hitachi	2	0.40 %	98795	131892	12416
IBM	186	37.20 %	6511376	10059679	1498276
Intel	1	0.20 %	21810	25715	2296
NEC	1	0.20 %	35860	40960	5120
SGI	17	3.40 %	1218446	1479534	141560
Sun Microsystems	7	1.40 %	542762	724744	82936
Appro International	4	0.80 %	158700	191536	30736
Linux Networx	2	0.40 %	55810	72652	7784
Transtec AG	1	0.20 %	12640	17194	1616
Self-made	3	0.60 %	52740	82556	8880
Hewlett-Packard	209	41.80 %	4193950	7260891	708784
California Digital Corporation	1	0.20 %	19940	22938	4096
Dawning	1	0.20 %	180600	233472	30720
ClusterVision	1	0.20 %	13600	17338	2064
Bull SA	3	0.60 %	115090	137523	19696
NEC/Sun	1	0.20 %	77480	161816	30976
DALCO AG Switzerland	1	0.20 %	28990	34560	2880
ClusterVision/Dell	2	0.40 %	37200	52462	4332
Koi Computers	1	0.20 %	13460	23104	3040
Pyramid Computer	1	0.20 %	32800	52032	5420
ACTION	1	0.20 %	38170	49731	5336
UNICORNER/Fujitsu-Siemens	1	0.20 %	18810	24576	2048
ClusterVision/IBM	2	0.40 %	41476	53312	4928
SKIF/T-Platforms	1	0.20 %	47170	60000	5000
ServiWare	1	0.20 %	12604	16781	1824
LUFAC Computacion SA de CV	1	0.20 %	18480	25440	2120
Raytheon-Aspen Systems/Appro	1	0.20 %	26730	36601	3440
Dell/Sun	2	0.40 %	89800	112853	12240
Lenovo	1	0.20 %	102800	145965	12216
Totals	500	100%	16958600.19	25449076.20	3121579

Resource - TOP500

Judge Orders Apple's New Hire to Stop Work

The drama continues for Apple's new employee Mark Papermaster who recently took a job at Apple to replace Tony Fadell. The transition has received more attention than usual due to a lawsuit filed by IBM.

Papermaster was said to have a non-compete agreement in place in which he agreed not to work at a competitor for a period of one year following his employment at IBM.

A new report reveals that a District Court judge has now ordered Papermaster to immediately stop work due to the possible violation of the agreement. Papermaster has argued that IBM and Apple are not competitors. Apple has said they will comply with the court's order but "are confident that Mark Papermaster will be able to ultimately join Apple when the dust settles".

Papermaster was hired at Apple to replace Fadell as senior vice president of Devices Hardware Engineering. Fortune provides a detailed timeline of the events of Papermaster's recruitment. Steve Jobs is said to have offered Papermaster an offer he couldn't refuse, a "once in a liftetime opportunity". Papermaster accepted the job offer despite a significant counteroffer from IBM.
Resource - MacRumors

IBM and Chinese Palace Museum open Forbidden City virtual 3D tour

Some 600 years after construction began, China's Palace Museum and IBM opened the sprawling walled fortress to the world via an immersive 3D virtual experience.

Just a cursory visit to the Forbidden City in central Beijing is enough to fill anyone with awe, even in the 21st century when there are so many other known large-scale architectural treasures.

In the Ming dynasty, after the Prince of Tan ascended the throne as emperor Zhu Di, he moved Nanjing ("southern capital") to Beijing ("northern capital') and oversaw construction of the Forbidden City between 1406 and 1420.

The Forbidden City was created to embody the idea of the Chinese emperor as the center of the universe and to evoke a visceral sense of his power.

For more than five hundred years, the Ming and Qing emperors ruled China from the palaces of the Forbidden City. The art and architectural treasures from this period are the cultural heart of modern China.

It was the unassailed seat of imperial power right through until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912. The Academy Award winning "The Last Emperor" catches the last spasms of imperial glory, and is very much worth watching.

Of late there have been quite a few popular movies catching the flavor of Chinas' long history, of the intrigues and wars, some of them loosely based on reality. The last one I viewed was Zhang Yimou's "Curse of the Golden Flower" and it was most enjoyable even if a little fanciful. The battle scenes in a palace based on the design of the Forbidden City are terrific.

There's one scene right near the end — quite thought provoking in terms of the scale of things carried out in China, even if not as spectacular as some of the action scenes — after the final battle has been lost by the hero, when the myriad broken pots of yellow chrysanthemums are quickly replaced as if nothing has occurred.

Now you can deeply immerse yourself in the environment of the Forbidden City, from the comfort of your desk. (And nothing like as tiring as actually going there. I visited the City briefly one weekend during an IBM business trip, and became exhausted after walking round just a tiny part of the huge grounds.)

Three years in the making, IBM has meticulously built a virtual recreation of the architecture and artifacts of the former palace grounds, enabling online visitors to get a first-hand view into imperial China as embodied in the intricate design, history and storied culture of this newly accessible Forbidden City.

To quote the press release: "Using virtual world technology, rather than experiencing its wonders in isolation, the virtual Forbidden City allows you to see and interact with other users and a range of helpful automated characters."

"As you explore the virtual Forbidden City, you can choose to simply observe the buzz of activity, or you can take tours and participate in activities that provide insights into important aspects of Qing culture."

This, they say, "is the world's first online virtual world dedicated to a country's cultural heritage. This is presented as a three-dimensional replica of the square-kilometre palace grounds called The Virtual Forbidden City. The project partners' goal was to create an experience that is as authentic as possible by being true to important Chinese principles of balance and harmony."

The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time, a partnership between IBM and the Palace Museum in Beijing, China, was opened on 10 October 2008.

See the introductory video at the bottom of this page.

Visitors to the virtual Forbidden City are able to take tours that correspond to major historical topics and stories from the Forbidden City, such as Dragons of the Forbidden City, the Supreme Golden Halls of the Forbidden City, the Imperial Garden, and the Symbolic Animals in the Forbidden City.

Rather than being an isolating virtual experience, the Virtual Forbidden City allows visitors to see and interact with each other and with a wide range of volunteers, staff, and automated characters.

Dress up as an imperial eunuch, watch the emperor feasting or training fighting crickets, engage in activities such as archery attended by an imperial courtesan, stride around in as an imperial warrior.

To welcome the broadest range of visitors, a simple, easy to use interface guides interactions with the Virtual Forbidden City.

As they explore the Virtual Forbidden City, visitors can choose to simply observe the buzz of activity, participate in activities that provide insights into important aspects of the Qing dynasty, or even take guided tours that uncover new insights into the stories of the Forbidden City.

In addition, the Virtual Forbidden City also provides "an unequalled way for people to plan a visit to the real Palace Museum.

Visitors to the Palace Museum will be much better able to find their way and to understand the significance of places and things they encounter because of their experiences in the Virtual Forbidden City."

Don't miss this chance to visit (virtually) The Forbidden City: Beyond Space & Time, and see things previously out of bounds to mere mortals.

TECHNOLOGY NOTES:
Beyond Space and Time is comprised of a portfolio of customized, integrated products and services including WebSphere Application Server, Advanced ESB (WebSphere Message Broker) DB2, GarageGames’ orque Game Engine, and other open source components. BladeCenters running Linux Blade servers support the highest level of performance and robustness. IBM Rational software tools facilitated the design, development, and testing of the project applications.

SUPPORTED ENVIRONMENTS: The Virtual Forbidden City virtual world application runs on Windows XP/Vista, Mac OSX, and Linux.

Resource - iTWire