IBM passes Sun, SGI to claim No. 1 Spot in high-performance computing
Report on World's 500 Fastest Computers Shows
IBM Grew Customer Share by 36 Per cent
SOMERS, N.Y., Nov. 11 /CNW/ - IBM is now the leader in high
performance computing according to a report issued today that tracks the
installation of supercomputers by universities, government labs and a wide
array of businesses.
According to the TOP500 list of supercomputers, IBM led all vendors with
141 systems -- all RS/6000 SPs -- up 36 per cent from one year ago. SGI/Cray
fell from the lead position, a spot it has owned for the entire seven year
history of the TOP500 list.
TOP500 List Leaders
1998 1999 Growth
IBM 104 141 36%
SGI 183 133 (-27%)
Sun 127 113 (-10%)
"The Internet, business intelligence and deep computing have placed a
premium on the value of data for all types of research and business," said Rod
Adkins, general manager, IBM RS/6000, IBM Corp. "Users as diverse as
scientists and CFOs are demanding access to computing power that, until
recently, was exclusive to science and academia. IBM will continue to deliver
the processing power and deep computing technology necessary to help solve the
most complex challenges of business, engineering and science."
The latest TOP500 List continues to underscore one important trend: the
emerging number of supercomputers used in commercial applications. Nearly half
of the systems on the TOP500 - 246 - are used for commercial applications. In
the elite top 100, seven of the nine systems used for commercial computing are
RS/6000 SPs running AIX, IBM's UNIX operating system.
A prototype of the much anticipated ASCI White supercomputer, an RS/6000
SP being built for the Department of Energy, debuted on TOP500 at number 120.
When this computer is completed and delivered to Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory as planned next year, it will be capable of up to 10 teraflop
performance. This translates to 10 trillion floating point operations per
second or more than four times faster than the fastest computer on the TOP500
list today.
The "TOP500 Supercomputing Sites" list is compiled and published by
supercomputing experts Jack Dongarra from the University of Tennessee and
Erich Strohmaier and Hans Meuer of the University of Mannheim (Germany). The
entire list can be viewed at www.top500.org.
For more information about RS/6000 systems and the AIX operating system,
see the RS/6000 home page at rs6000.ibm.com.
IBM, RS/6000, SP and AIX are registered trademarks or trademarks of the
IBM Corporation in Canada, the United States, other countries, or all. UNIX is
a registered trademark in Canada, the United States and other countries,
licensed exclusively through X/Open Company, Limited. Other company, product
and service names, which may be denoted by a double asterisk ((xx)) may be
trademarks or service marks of others.
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For further information: Maureen Rourke, IBM Canada Ltd.,
(905) 316-4425, mrourke@ca.ibm.com
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