Windows Supercomputer Breaks Petaflop Barrier
A supercomputer using Windows HPC Server entered petaflop land.
Last week the organization behind the World's Top 500 Supercomputers list announced that China grabbed the supercomputing leadership spot with the Tianhe-1A system located at the National supercomputer Center in Tianjin. The monster system has achieved a performance level of 2.57 petaflops per second--literally quadrillions of calculations per second.
However Network World points out that a Windows HPC Server-based supercomputer has actually broken the petaflop speed barrier, the Tsubame 2.0 computer based at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
"We saw outstanding performance from Windows HPC Server during our Linpack benchmarking run on Tsubame 2.0," said Satoshi Matsuoka, professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "It broke the Petaflop barrier and was on par with Linux at this scale. In a power-optimized configuration, it recorded over a Gigaflop/Watt, showing it is nearly three times more energy efficient than an average laptop. We were very excited to see this level of performance given Windows applications will be an important part of our work with industry partners."
The problem Microsoft faced with its Top 500 ranking is that the achievement wasn't recognized because the same machine was able to achieve higher speeds using Linux. General manager of Microsoft's technical computing group Bill Hilf said that the benchmarking tests were performed on both Linux and Windows with a resulting 5-percent difference, however Linux came out on top. That said, the Tokyo Institute was only allowed to submit one test to the Top 500 group, and obviously chose the faster of the two.
Still, Microsoft seemed pleased with the results despite not making the Top 500. "We're not trying to be a supercomputing company," Hilf said. "We're trying to say 'how do we mainstream all of this stuff so that HPC becomes broadly available at all levels.'"
"For us, it's not about some exotic supercomputers that are available to a small amount of users," he added. "We're really interested in the bottom 500,000 computing users."
The Top 500 list showed that only five computers where using Windows while 459 used Linux.
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.
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reprotected So I'm assuming that after this, there will be a Microsoft video dissing Linux HPC server OSes?Reply -
nforce4max AlbyintIf I had a computer that awesome I would run apocalypse simulations for fun.Reply
I would be using it for physics simulations such as particle interaction and extra dimensional interaction simulations. -
alextheblue tronikascrew crysis. can it fix my Black Ops lag?Not until you ditch that Hayes modem.Reply -
Parsian nforce4maxI would be using it for physics simulations such as particle interaction and extra dimensional interaction simulations.Reply
Amen... I want to simulate a simple universe with fundamental force and let it simulate formation of structures and observe thermodynamics at work... on Matlab that is :P -
rpgplayer "We're really interested in the bottom 500,000 computing users."Reply
this explains why relatives always try to get me to fix their POS 66mhz pentium machines instead of throwing the damn things away