According to this story from the Russian ITAR-TASS news agency, a 1 Petaflop (peak) supercomputer has been deployed at the Rosatom Nuclear Energy State Corporation in Sarov, Russia. With 780 Teraflops of sustained performance, the system the system would reportedly rank as the 12th-fastest supercomputer in the world.
I should note that such rankings are unofficial as the next TOP500 list does not come out until June, 2011. Until now, the fastest supercomputer in Russia was the 350 Teraflop T-Platforms system at the University of Moscow, which was ranked number 17 on the list in November, 2010.
Few details about the Rosatom system were released, but it appears to be based on the x86 architecture.
Academician Andrei Kokoshin of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Member of the State Duma lower house of parliament and ex-Secretary of the RF Security Council, told Itar-Tass in comment on the information, “The recent introduction of a supercomputer of petaflop class at the Russian Federal nuclear center ‘All-Russian Experimental Physics Research Institute’ in Sarov is a great event in Russia’s science and technology. It is important that this supercomputer is also based on the original products of the development efforts of the experimental physics institute and that this computing system is provided with software, the main components of which have also been devised and adapted by the Institute’s specialists.”
Kokoshin went on to say that, “This supercomputer will serve as a tangible contribution to the strengthening of national security and national competitiveness of Russia.”
