Supercomputers: the United States resume the top spot

Science and techno world topic: Computer

The Sequoia supercomputer designed by IBM and installed at the U.S. Department of Energy in California has reached a computing power of 16.32 petaflops. It dethrones the Japanese supercomputer K who occupied first place in the Top 500 last year.

The list of Top 500 supercomputers published twice a year in November and June has just delivered its verdict. And for the first time since June 2010, the U.S. has taken the top spot thanks to a supercomputer designed by IBM.

Photo: The Sequoia supercomputer will be used to perform simulations of nuclear weapons to avoid the use of underground explosions. 

The podium of supercomputers

The United States monopolize the podium with another IBM supercomputer BlueGene / Q named Mira, installed at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, which is also attached to the Department of Energy. A fourth system is ranked ⁱⁿ 6th position; it is the Jaguar (Cray). But as noted by the Top 500 organization, Europe makes a comeback with no less than four places in the top 10. There are first of all Germany ⁱⁿ 4th position with SuperMuc (IBM), Italy in 7 ^th position with Fermi (IBM), Germany again in^8th place with JuQueen (IBM) and finally France in ^9th position with the Curie thin nodes (Bull) installed at CEA. China established two supercomputers in the top 10 with Tianhe-1A (No. 1 ranking in November 2010) are No. 5 and No. 10 Nebulae.

In its press release, Top 500 indicates that the cumulative performance of the overall ranking of supercomputers reached 123.4 against 74.2 petaflops petaflops in November 2011. As for the processors used, Intel dominates with 74.4% or 372 systems equipped. AMD, a distant second with 63 systems with, for his part stressed that 24 of the top 100 supercomputers use its processors. As for manufacturers of these powerhouses, IBM and HP together account for over 70% of the Top 500 systems with respectively 213 and 138 facilities.

In summary, the United States dominates the Top 500 systems with 253, followed by Asia with 121 systems (including 68 Chinese and 34 Japanese). Europe has 107 supercomputers including 25 in England, 22 in France and 20 in Germany.