A Glimpse of RoadRunner

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ComputerWorld has posted an interesting peek into what could become the fastest supercomputer on the planet as measured by Linpack this June. Rumors have been circulating that RoadRunner was going to take a stab at the top spot. IBM’s fabled RoadRunner is in the process of receiving Phase3 of an upgrade to push its peak performance over a petaflop. 6,000 square feet of floorspace, 250 tons of equipment and lots of IBM logos have gone into building this behemoth. How sure is IBM that they will be able to do so?

IBM logoWe will break the petascale,” [Don] Grice [Chief Engineer of RoadRunner] told Computerworld.

According to sources inside IBM, they are quite simply contractually obligated to do so. This, of course, alludes to the fact that RoadRunner will be over 2x the current speed of its cousin, BlueGene/L at Livermore [currently 478 Tflops].

Computerworld has also posted a series of pictures of RoadRunner taken from within IBM’s lab in Poughkeepsie, New York. Have a look.

No coyotes were harmed in the making of this supercomputer.

Comments

  1. grammarnazi says

    I think you mean “allude” and not “elude”

    : )