Blue Waters at NCSA to Topple Tianhe-1A Next Year

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Christopher Mimms writes that while China make take the number 1 spot on the next TOP500 list, five systems that can beat it are already being planned for deployment in the USA.

According to Jack Dongarra, the keeper of the official Top500 list of the world’s fastest systems, there are five systems in the planning or construction phases that will exceed the Tianhe 1A in power. Some of the systems that are in the works represent more than merely incremental improvement on existing systems. The University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) will begin to take delivery of one such system in the first half of 2011, ramping up its massive scientific data crunching in the Fall of 2011, says Thom Dunning, director of NCSA. In 2012, the system, called Blue Waters, will be complete and the entire computer will be supporting a full range of scientific research.

According to their NCSA at SC10 site, Blue Waters will be previewed at SC10 booth number 3529.