Supercomputers are usually one-offs, but IBM is getting close to mass production at its supercomputing facility in Rochester, Minnesota. ZDNet UK went to take a look...
Rochester is the home of the Blue Gene supercomputer, and is also the birthplace of the AS400. The man who developed both, IBM chief scientist Frank Soltis, believes that the weather in chilly Rochester helps to develop better engineers and scientists. "There is not much else to do here," he says.
IBM claims that it supplies more than half the supercomputing capacity in the world, with 219 systems currently installed. The most prominent is Blue Gene, a much more powerful version of Deep Blue, the computer that beat chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov back in 1997.
What makes Blue Gene so unusual in supercomputing circles is that it is wholly based on the Power PC architecture, instead of a proprietary processor. That's the Power 4 processor, too, not the faster, later Power 5.
Power 4 is most suitable, IBM says, because it is not as highly clocked as other processors, so it produces less heat. The result is that Power 4 chips can be packed very closely together which helps in performance (cutting the distance travelled increases the speed of operations) and also lowers cost, as there is no need for expensive water-cooling.
In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in
Log in or create your ZDNet UK account below
By signing up for this service, you indicate that you agree to our Terms and Conditions and have read and understood our Privacy Policy. Questions about membership? Find the answers in the Membership FAQ
love the LHC info. Keep up the good work. May God bless all in volved.
3 hours ago by georgiox on LHC to run for longest continuous period You are quite right. HDS has not been marketing their products well. USPV is miles ahead in terms of ease of use and technology on enterprise...
7 hours ago by sgardia on Will the SUN set on Hitachi Data Systems OEM relationship?
Fedora is the same way as well. The yum update system uses "presto" which shrinks the amount of data needed for download. It's a great system....
18 hours ago by apexwm on Can you believe it - 2765 kB will be freed?
Updated ID cards considered for 2012: [zdnet.co.uk] The government is considering introducing a new generation of ID... http://dlvr.it/KpBZ
19 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor Google, Viacom trade blows in YouTube copyright spat: [zdnet.co.uk] Google and the US media giant Viacom have issued... http://dlvr.it/Knht
20 hours ago on Twitter by cybfor Be sure to include an audio option - eg. a beep tone - to intensify and reiterate the action. This will greatly benefit some consumers and give...
20 hours ago by CIMITL Data disposal is really important to get right. There are standards set by UK and US federal governments to ensure that data is kept secure. If...
21 hours ago by DataSecurityUK Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...
23 hours ago by chaycon1 on BT launches 40Mbps fibre-based broadband Online Fiber Optic Certification Join a talented group of professionals, who are dedicated to Fiber Optic Networking technology. The online course...
23 hours ago by chaycon1 on Google to build gigabit broadband to the home
Hi Dava, I'm glad to hear from you, and glad that you see things from the other side. I think that is the most important point of the whole...
23 hours ago by J.A. Watson on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest
please please please please please please kill that spam bot.
23 hours ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way it didn't post the link it's 'Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta-1 First Look' on youtube :) Dava
1 day ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest Hi James I disagree, Ubuntu needs a GUI update and this one IMO is quite good. your pics show a low res. here's a high res. on YouTube* The...
1 day ago by dava4444 on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) and the Latest Tempest Hi any news on the comment bot? knocking me back from my own blog is a bit cheeky lol *Mulder to Scully* "I think it has an agenda.." I know, I...
1 day ago by dava4444 on ZDNet UK: faster, smarter, still IT all the way if you look at the Brentwood exchange on samknows it servers 21,000 residential propertiesm, Lowestoft serves 31,000! Come on BT sort yourselves...
1 day ago by benny boy on BT fibre broadband coming to 69 more towns
[programming] H.264 - a sting in the tail http://reddit.com/bfu4q [zdnet.co.uk]
1 day ago on Twitter by pbreddit
H.264 - a sting in the tail [programming] 13 points, submitted by zigzag [zdnet.co.uk] http://reddit.com/bfu4q
1 day ago on Twitter by reddit Malware infects second Vodafone HTC phone: [zdnet.co.uk] A second Android-based HTC Magic from Vodafone has been... http://dlvr.it/KhKx
1 day ago on Twitter by cybforFor multi-store outlets, including retail, banking, grocery, gas, hospitality, convenience stores and others, reducing (or avoiding) the cost of in-store system support and maintenance while maintaining compliance with PCI and other requirements has become a strategic challenge.
Speaker: Dr. Chenxi Wang, Principal Analyst, Security and Risk Management, Forrester Research, Inc. As Enterprises are increasingly connected to the Internet and as hard organizational boundaries are fast disappearing, security professionals are facing fresh challenges in Enterprise computing.
This tutorial is for new MindManager users and teaches you how to get started, by creating maps, reading maps and organizing your information.
