supercomputer

Overheard: It’s official — IBM Roadrunner is world’s fastest computer

Perhaps surprisingly, more than 5 million PlayStation 3 owners in the U.S. have first-hand knowledge of at least one of the processors that carried the Roadrunner to victory. Walaika Haskins, IBM Roadrunner Meep-Meeps to Top of Supercomputer Rankings

The IBM supercomputer is powered by 12,240 IBM PowerXCell 8i Cell chips similar to those found in the gaming console. The system’s 6,562 AMD Opteron dual-core processors handle the basic compute functions, leaving the Cell chips available to deal with the heavy lifting necessary for the math-intensive calculations in which the processors specialize.

Video: IBM’s first supercomputer

The Computer History Museum has put together a great series of video tours. Here’s a peek at the IBM 7030, the first “supercomputer.”

Overheard: Build a supercomputer for your home office

“A parallel supercomputer requires only two basic hardware components: a bunch of processors and a way for those processors to talk to one another and other private and shared resources.” Robert G. Brown, Building Your First Cluster

Want to build a super computer?

Joel Adams, Tim Brom, and Jeff Layton give you step-by-step directions for building a Beowulf cluster they’re calling Microwulf.  It’s small enough to sit on a desk, with a footprint similar to that of a traditional PC tower. The system plugs into a normal electrical outlet, and runs at room temperature without any special cooling beyond my normal office air conditioning.  Microwulf: Breaking the $100 $50/GFLOP Barrier