IBM Builds 10 PFlops Supercomputer

News
By Douglas Perry
published

IBM will be building a 750,000 core supercomputer for the DOE's Argonne National Library.

Called Mira, the system is expected to deliver a maximum performance of about 10 PFlop/s which is about twice as fast as today's fastest supercomputer on the Top 500 list.

The new system will be built on IBM's BlueGene/Q technology and be capable of running about 10 quadrillion calculations per second, which is about 20 times the performance of Argonne's current Intrepid supercomputer. According to IBM, Mire will be able to do about the same number of calculations every second as every man, woman and child in the U.S. could do in one year if they were to do one calculation each second.

There was no information when Mira will be completed and there was no information how much this system will cost. However, IBM said that the supercomputer is a stepping stone on the path to an exascale supercomputer, which is expected to arrive in the 2020 time frame and will be at least 100 times faster than Mira. IBM said that such systems may be powered by "100s of millions of cores".     

Douglas Perry
49 Comments Comment from the forums
  • PIZZA Man
    Holy cow, can you imagine the possibilities this thing now opens? I can't wait to see what they do with this incomprehensible amount of processing power. But here's the big question: Can it run Crysis? ;)
    Reply
  • But can it run Windows ?
    Reply
  • Bolbi
    I just hope that they don't waste all of that raw computing power and taxpayers' dollars using this thing for "climate research"!
    Reply
  • thillntn
    is this cell based technology? another question would be"can it not get sued by $ony? :)
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    According to IBM, Mire will be able to do about the same number of calculations every second as every man, woman and child in the U.S. could do in one year if they were to do one calculation each second.

    but can it stop me from destroying it with a sledge hammer?

    no? then we humans are safe =]
    Reply
  • eklipz330
    also
    365 days * 24 hours * 60mins * 60 seconds * 300,000,000 people =

    9,460,800,000,000,000 calculations in one second
    Reply
  • HansVonOhain
    Run a compatible Folding @ Home on that. That would be just incredible.
    Reply
  • liveonc
    I can just picture every man, woman and child in the U.S. doing arithmetics. One calculation each second for a whole year! :-) If you force them to, the terrorist have finally won, & there is peace on Earth...
    Reply
  • jprahman
    Just think about how much power that thing is going to use. If Chicago has a blackout around the same time they power that thing on we'll all know why.
    Reply
  • warmon6
    HansVonOhainRun a compatible Folding @ Home on that. That would be just incredible.
    0.0

    Wow. that would be double of what F@H doing right now (according to F@h stats, were running 5.2 native Petra flops or unless you want to count the x86 flops as 9.3 Petra Flops)

    So if this thing were built tomorrow (which we know it wont) it could run the entire project with out our help. (in theroy)

    Although by the time IBM finish building that thing, F@H will already be past the 10 pflop range.
    Reply