Statistics

Charts

Hard disks have disappointed me more than most technologies.

Steve Wozniak

Quad-core processor based systems have taken over the TOP500 quite rapidly. Already 283 systems are using them. 203 systems are using dual-core processors, only eleven systems still use single core processors, and three systems use IBMs advanced Sony PlayStation 3 processor with 9 cores. The Linpack benchmark can utilize multi-core processors very well, which led to performance levels increasing above average across the whole list.
The entry level to the list moved up to the 9.0 Tflop/s mark on the Linpack benchmark, compared to 5.9 Tflop/s six months ago.
The last system on the list would have been listed at position 200 in the previous TOP500 just six months ago. This is the largest turnover rate in the 16 years of the history of the TOP500 project.
Total combined performance has grown to 11.7 Pflop/s, compared to 6.97 Pflop/s six months ago and 4.92 Pflop/s one year ago.
The entry point for the top 100 increased in six months from 12.97 Tflop/s to 18.8 Tflop/s.
The average concurrency level in the TOP500 is 4,850 cores per system up from 3,290 six month ago

A total of 375 systems (75 percent) are now using Intel processors. This is up from six months ago (354 systems, 70.8 percent) and a represents the largest share for Intel chips in the TOP500 ever.
The IBM Power processors passed the AMD Opteron family and are now (again) the second most common processor family with 68 systems (13.6 percent), up from 61 systems (12.2 percent) six months ago. Fifty-six systems (11 percent) are using AMD Opteron processors, down from 78 systems (15.6 percent) six months ago.
Multi-core processors are the dominant chip architecture. The most impressive growth showed the number of systems using the Intel Harpertown and Clovertown quad core chips, which grew in six months from 102 to 253 systems.
The majority of remaining systems uses dual-core processors.
400 systems are labeled as clusters, making this the most common architecture in the TOP500 with a stable share of 80 percent.
Gigabit Ethernet is still the most-used internal system interconnect technology (285 systems), due to its widespread use at industrial customers, followed by InfiniBand technology with 120 systems.

IBM and Hewlett-Packard continue to sell the bulk of systems at all performance levels of the TOP500.
IBM held on to its lead in systems with 210 systems (42 percent) over HP with 183 systems (36.6 percent). IBM had 232 systems (46.4 percent) six months ago, compared to HP with 166 systems (33.2 percent).
IBM remains the clear leader in the TOP500 list in performance with 48 percent of installed total performance (up from 45 percent), compared to HP with 22.4 percent (down from 23.9 percent).
In the system category, Dell, SGI and Cray follow with 5.4 percent, 4.4 percent and 3.2 percent respectively.
In the performance category, the manufacturers with more than 5 percent are: Cray (6.6 percent of performance), SGI (5.9 percent), and Dell (5.5 percent of performance), each of which benefits from large systems in the TOP100.
IBM (118) and HP (163) sold together 281 out of 287 systems at commercial and industrial customers and have had this important market segment clearly cornered for some time now.

The U.S. is clearly the leading consumer of HPC systems with 257 of the 500 systems. The European share (184 systems – up from 149) is still rising and is again larger then the Asian share (48 – down from 58 systems).
Dominant countries in Asia are Japan with 22 systems (up from 20), China with 12 systems (up from 10), India with 6 systems (down from 9), and Taiwan with 3 (down from 11).
In Europe, UK remains the No. 1 with 53 systems (48 six months ago). Germany improved but is still in the No. 2 spot with 46 systems (31 six months ago).