IBM reigns list of Top 500 Supercomputers

The world's largest computer manufacturer and seller IBM continues to dominate the list of the fastest supercomputers in the world, with four of the top 10 computers on the list and nearly half of the top 500.

IBM accounts for 243 of the 500 most powerful supercomputers in the world and more than half the total processing power, according to the ‘Top 500 Supercomputer Sites list’, released at the International Supercomputing Conference, in Dresden, Germany.

Two IBM supercomputers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) ranked the No. 1 and No. 3 spots on the list, compiled by computing experts from the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Tennessee and the University of Mannheim, in Germany.

The Lab’s Blue Gene/L designed for computational science, being manufactured by IBM Corp. and the Department of Energy's LLNL has now made the top spot on the twice-yearly list four times in a row.

The list comprised another IBM system of the Livermore lab, ASC Purple, on No. 3 spot. In the No. 2 spot was a Blue Gene system at IBM's Watson Research Center, in Yorktown Heights, New York.

The LLNL said last week that its Blue Gene/L system had sustained a record speed of 280.6 teraflops that is about three times faster than the computer in the No. 2 spot, which is listed at 91.29 teraflops. While, Livermore's 3rd ranked ASC Purple has a speed of 75.8 teraflops.

Organizers expect the Blue Gene/L system to remain at the top of the list for at least the next few editions.

IBM systems, which is also the biggest information technology company in the world, account for 48.6% of all the systems on the list, ahead of Hewlett-Packard, which has a 30.8% presence. The company has 24 of IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer models on the list.

The list organizers informed that the smallest systems on the list were faster than 2.03 teraflops. In comparison, last year the minimum was 1.17 teraflops. Thealso informed that the use of cluster systems continues to grow as with 365 of the top 500 labeled as clusters.