• One for this

    One for this "Roadrunner"!

    Techtree News Staff, Jun 10, 2008 1821 hrs IST

    "Roadrunner" is claimed to be twice as fast as the reigning "numero uno" aka IBM's Blue Gene system at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab.

    mail share

A new supercomputer code-named "Roadrunner" is being touted as the world's fastest machine so far. Designed and built by IBM, this super computer, costing nearly $100 million, can operate at 1 petaflop per second, which is equivalent to one thousand trillion calculations per second.

This makes it twice as fast as the reigning "numero uno" aka IBM's Blue Gene system at the Lawrence Livermore National Lab. Again, Blue Gene is nearly three times faster than top contenders on the current 'top 500 supercomputers' list.

Additionally, "Roadrunner" is also billed to be the world's first hybrid supercomputer. Interestingly, it has been designed using components originally designed for video game platforms such as the Sony Playstation 3. "Roadrunner" operates on open-source Linux software, works in conjunction with x86 processors from AMD, and has 80 terabytes of memory.

"Roadrunner" will be primarily used at a US government laboratory to monitor the US nuclear weapons stockpile. It will also find use in research in the fields of astronomy, energy, human genome science, and climate change.

Just to give an idea of the speed that "Roadrunner" boasts, it is roughly equivalent to the combined computing power of 100,000 of today's fastest laptop computers. A stack of laptops about 1.5 miles high will be required to equal Roadrunner's performance.

In the past 10 years, supercomputer power has increased about 1,000 times. Today, just three of Roadrunner's 3,456 Tri-blade units have the same power as the combined power of the fastest supercomputer back in 1998.

Follow Techtree on Twitter

Related Links
IBM's New Software Development
Blue Gene Surpasses Self
Supercomputer Wars: Roadrunner Jaguared!
Tag keywords
Roadrunner IBM supercomputer



Discussion Board
(23) Comments
Tim
,Florida-somewheres, on Jun 10, 2008 09:41 PM
And the Answer is. . . . 42
Report abuse
Ray
,buffalo, on Jun 11, 2008 02:32 PM
what was the question again I seem to have forgot
Report abuse
caLeB
,your mother, on Jun 11, 2008 07:04 AM
they really should try running crysis on that...
Report abuse
Greg the Westie
,Waitakere, on Jun 11, 2008 05:36 AM
But does it plays Crysis at a decent frame rate ?
Report abuse
Mark
,Simsbury, CT, on Jun 10, 2008 10:03 PM
"can operate at 1 petaflop per second"?! I'm disappointed that this scientific and exacting website committed such an error of redundancy.
Report abuse
Dude
,Chicago, on Jun 10, 2008 10:29 PM
lol - good one.
Report abuse
Jim
,Glendale, on Jun 10, 2008 11:11 PM
emmm, am i missing the redundancy? "operate at 1 petaflop per second"... Nope not seeing it, this statement is analogous to "travel at 1 kilometer per hour"... it gives the action, and the measurement of the action. "Petaflop" is not a verb, it is a noun, a unit of measure.
Report abuse
Scott
,Gaithersburg, MD, on Jun 10, 2008 11:30 PM
He's right... FLOPS = FLoating point Operations Per Second.
Report abuse
Jim
,Glendale, on Jun 11, 2008 12:13 AM
No, I'm right. Looks like the system ate my last post, it had a link in it. Learn to read past the first line of the Wikipedia article. Then learn to differentiate. FLOPS = FLoating-point Operations Per Second. FLOP = FLoating-point OPeration. 1 petaflop per second = 1 petaflops. Alternately, you can write 1 petaflop/s and have it mean the same thing.
Report abuse
JayLikeBirds
,Olympus, on Jun 10, 2008 09:34 PM
It's a lovely ball of mud we have here, Thank You Very Much. That said, it is still only a calculator, albeit a darn-tootin' one. These probobly don't have to sit around much watching blue bars insist they are still 'rendering'. --- Does this mean that when the American government runs out of money we can sell gaming sessions on the Roadrunner to Chinese rich kids?
Report abuse
Ur Central Bank
,Washington, DC, on Jun 10, 2008 10:45 PM
"when the American government runs out of money" ...they just print more, borrowing your children even more into debt. Sincerely, The Federal Reserve
Report abuse
Jacob
,Stillwater, on Jun 10, 2008 10:42 PM
The questions is, can it play Crisis?
Report abuse
Margo
,St. Petersburg FL, on Jun 10, 2008 10:26 PM
My chihuahua has a "petaflop" each morning, but he doesn't do it this fast!
Report abuse
Scot
,Atlanta, on Jun 10, 2008 09:42 PM
Why don't we use this computer to figure out why we are selling our Country away to China and the Middle East?
Report abuse
delapaix
,PDX, on Jun 10, 2008 10:09 PM
Hello- In less than than ten years this much power will be available on our desktop
Report abuse
Chris
,WA, on Jun 10, 2008 09:56 PM
As I understand it, the nuclear monitoring is a sort of simulation platform so they do not have to carry out underground detonations.
Report abuse
John Mercer
,Tampa, on Jun 10, 2008 09:33 PM
Please write better articles. When I see a statement like "designed using components originally designed for .. Sony Playstation 3," I would love to know what components those are. As far as I'm concerned, they used the same plastic casing. This lack of detail in journalism is embarassing.
Report abuse
Nathan
,Detroit, on Jun 10, 2008 09:54 PM
The designed component "originally" for PS3, is simply known as the "cell microprocessor" It was a corroboration between SCEA, IBM, and Toshiba(mostly manufacturing). Too much info to post, but searching "IBM cell" would turn up some great resources.
Report abuse
Michael
,Burlington, ON, on Jun 10, 2008 09:32 PM
Boy, that's a lot of horsepower to (primarily) monitor the US nuclear weapons stockpile. Why would you need a petaflop processor for this? Sounds like a small business inventory management application would do the trick. However, a petaflop would come in handy for modeling nuclear detonations ...
Report abuse
Mike
,Minneapolis, on Jun 10, 2008 09:50 PM
AES -- Lookout!
Report abuse
patrick
,santa ana, on Jun 10, 2008 09:27 PM
what does it look like,cooling required,power consumption,how many to operate,IBM toy for lease ?neat,whats next ?
Report abuse
Harry
,Johnstown, PA, on Jun 10, 2008 08:50 PM
Fantastic...in my opinion, cutting edge technology ends up improving mankind's lot on this ball of mud
Report abuse
Peter De Bruyne
,Laredo, MO, on Jun 10, 2008 08:09 PM
Scary ! Sounds like the old Frederick Brown sci-fi story of the super computer, after being plugged in for the first time, when asked, "Is there a God", responded, "Now there is!" And before the scientists could unplug it, the machine zapped them into oblivion.
Report abuse

Opinion Poll