| Linux takes the supercomputer hill |
Nov. 14, 2006
 Linux powers more than 75 percent of the world's most powerful computers, according to data released yesterday in the annual "Top 500" report. Intel's Pentium 4 Xeon proved the most popular processor, followed by dual-core Opteron and EM64T Xeons in a dead heat for second. A PowerPC-based machine once again took top honors, however.
IBM's Bluegene/L (pictured above) followed up its top spot last year, once again leading the pack. With 131,072 embedded PowerPC processors and 32,768 GB of RAM, Bluegene/L turned in 280,600 GigaFLOPS (floating operations per second) overall, and 367,000 GigaFLOPS peak performance, on Linpack benchmark tests.
The U.S. led as the top consumer of supercomputers, with 309 of the top 500 computers, followed by Japan and the U.K., tied at 30. Overall, Asia had 79, while Europe claimed 92 of the top 500.
IBM sold 236 of the top 500 computers, losing the majority share that it claimed last year. HP was second, with 158, followed by SGI, with 20; Dell, with 18; and Cray, with 15.
About half of the top computers were consumed by industry, with 133 in research, and 86 in academic applications. Some 20 were reportedly consumed by "classified" market segments.
The most popular reported use was "not specified," claimed by 285 entrants. Next came "semiconductor," with 50, "research," at 46; "finance," at 29; "geophysics," at 23; and "weather and climate research," at 17. Interestingly, "gaming" was claimed by 7 entrants, while "defense" was claimed by only 3.
More details on the Top 500 are available from Top500.org. The site currently offers a neat results analyzer interface for this year's data.
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