Japan answers China's supercomputing surge - Computerworld
Computerworld - A new supercomputer from Japan whose performance passed the 8 petaflop milestone ended China's brief period atop the list of the world's fastest supercomputers.
The Japanese system also set another all-time Top 500 record -- a 10 megawatt power rating while running the Linpack test used to determine system performance. Despite the significant power consumption, the K Computer achieved "extraordinarily high computing efficiency," said RIKEN and Fujitsu, in a statement.
The new Top 500 leader, the K Computer housed at the Riken Advanced Institute for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, runs 68,544, eight-core Sparc chips made by Japan-based Fujitsu. The system is expected to eventually run some 80,000 of the Sparc processors.
China's move to head the the Top500.org list late last year underscored the continuing global competition to build the world's most powerful computer systems.
The Chinese Tianhe-1A supercomputer, took the number one position last November with a performance of 2.57 petaflops.
In speeches after that, President Barack Obamareferenced China's accomplishment.
Supercomputer developers are keenly aware that they will need huge gains in power efficiency to reach supercomputing's next big goal -- building an exascale class system (1,000 time more powerful than a petascale system) by 2018.
For more: Computer World
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