US Reclaims Top Supercomputer Spot with 'Sequoia'

Rob Williams · 06-18-2012, 02:00 PM

Not content to sit in second place for too long, the US along with IBM have worked hard to re-secure the top spot on the top 500 fastest supercomputer list. It's name: Sequoia. It's performance: about +50% faster than Japan's K computer, which now sits in the #2 spot. According to David Turek, IBM's VP of Exascale Computing, Sequoia's planning spans back two years - and a definite goal was to reclaim that top spot.

Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here!

madmat · 06-18-2012, 02:29 PM

Bet it's still 90% Chinese...

Rob Williams · 06-18-2012, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by madmat

Bet it's still 90% Chinese...

Hah! The thing I find odd is that component lists aren't even made available. I -assume- that it's all Intel Xeon being used in there, which is as American as it gets (in terms of where it's designed and for the most part produced).

madmat · 06-18-2012, 02:53 PM

Xeon or Itanium. The rest would be produced overseas. As far as I'm aware there are no motherboards produced here or memory either.

Strike that, it uses IBM chips.

Rob Williams · 06-18-2012, 03:13 PM

I am not familiar with IBM's chips at all, but that might explain the reason Sequoia has 1.5 million processor cores for 16-20 PFLOPS when it took just 150,000 Xeon cores for the IBM SuperMUC to hit 3 PFLOPS.

Tharic-Nar · 06-19-2012, 10:38 AM

It's IBM, so PowerPC. The exact details are "Power BQC 16C 1.60 GHz" - which is a 16-core Power A2 processor clocked at 1.6GHz instead of 2.3GHz. Some of the technical details about the BlueGene/Q series can be found here. There is more than one BlueGene/Q, the Sequoia just so happens to be the fastest. In addition, it uses a custom interconnect instead of Ethernet (open) or Infiniband (Intel), but IBM's own 5D Torus, which is an Optical 40Gbps interconnect - trying to get details on that is a little tricky though.

06-18-2012, 02:00 PM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	US Reclaims Top Supercomputer Spot with 'Sequoia' Not content to sit in second place for too long, the US along with IBM have worked hard to re-secure the top spot on the top 500 fastest supercomputer list. It's name: Sequoia. It's performance: about +50% faster than Japan's K computer, which now sits in the #2 spot. According to David Turek, IBM's VP of Exascale Computing, Sequoia's planning spans back two years - and a definite goal was to reclaim that top spot. Read the rest of our post and then discuss it here! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

06-18-2012, 02:53 PM	#4
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	Xeon or Itanium. The rest would be produced overseas. As far as I'm aware there are no motherboards produced here or memory either. Strike that, it uses IBM chips. __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me! Last edited by madmat; 06-18-2012 at 02:59 PM.

06-18-2012, 03:13 PM	#5
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	I am not familiar with IBM's chips at all, but that might explain the reason Sequoia has 1.5 million processor cores for 16-20 PFLOPS when it took just 150,000 Xeon cores for the IBM SuperMUC to hit 3 PFLOPS. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

06-19-2012, 10:38 AM	#6
Tharic-Nar Techgage Staff Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: UK Posts: 1,151	It's IBM, so PowerPC. The exact details are "Power BQC 16C 1.60 GHz" - which is a 16-core Power A2 processor clocked at 1.6GHz instead of 2.3GHz. Some of the technical details about the BlueGene/Q series can be found here. There is more than one BlueGene/Q, the Sequoia just so happens to be the fastest. In addition, it uses a custom interconnect instead of Ethernet (open) or Infiniband (Intel), but IBM's own 5D Torus, which is an Optical 40Gbps interconnect - trying to get details on that is a little tricky though. __________________ PSU: Corsair 1000HX - Case: Thermaltake Xaser VI Full Tower - CPU: Intel Core i7 2600 @3.8GHz - Cooler: Thermaltake FRIO - Motherboard: ASUS P67 Sabertooth - Memory: 16GB Corsair Vengeance LP Arctic 1600 - GPU: 2x AMD Radeon HD 5870 - HDD: WD Caviar Black 1TB 6Gb/s - Audio: ASUS Xonar DX + Corsair HS1 USB Headset K/B: Corsair K90 - Mouse: Corsair M60 - Monitor: DELL U2410 - Speakers: Corsair SP2500 - Headset: Corsair HS1A - Mic: Blue Yeti USB Microphone - I need Fiber to fix my Irregular Bandwidth Syndrome - Last edited by Tharic-Nar; 06-19-2012 at 10:46 AM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Coca-Cola Retains Top Spot for Most Valuable Brand in 2011	Rob Williams	Off Topic	5	01-20-2012 09:43 AM
Jeopardy! to Feature IBM Supercomputer as Contestant	Rob Williams	Off Topic	6	12-16-2010 06:36 PM
Intel touts supercomputer dominance	Rob Williams	Processors	2	06-27-2009 07:43 PM
Palit Radeon HD 4870 X2 1GB - AMD Reclaims GPU Supremacy	Rob Williams	Reviews and Articles	11	08-23-2008 04:03 PM
Let's play a game of spot the memory leak!	Rob Williams	Storage Devices and Memory	5	03-19-2006 11:03 PM

06-18-2012, 02:29 PM	#2
madmat Soup Nazi Join Date: Jun 2005 Location: No soup for you! Posts: 1,636	Bet it's still 90% Chinese... __________________ M4N82 Deluxe Phenom II 940 Black Edition quad core @ 3.5Ghz 2x1 gig OCZ PC26400 Platinum, 2x1gig GSkill PC26400 EVGA GTX260 Buncha drives, Some other stuff, Even more stuff, If the automobile had followed the same development cycle as the computer, a Rolls-Royce would today cost $100, get a million miles per gallon, and explode once a year, killing everyone inside. --Robert X. Cringely, InfoWorld magazine Sign Me!