Intel powers world’s fastest supercomputer

NEW ORLEANS, USA: Intel Corp. announced that its Intel Xeon 5600 series processors, announced earlier this year, are at the heart of the world’s most powerful supercomputer, the Tianhe-1A.

Located at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin, China, Tianhe-1A contains 14,396 Intel processors accompanied by accelerator cards, and has demonstrated groundbreaking performance of 2.57 petaflops (quadrillions of calculations per second).

In partnership with Inspur, a computer manufacturer in China, Intel worked closely with the National Supercomputing Center and its technology partners to achieve this groundbreaking performance.

The 36th edition of the TOP500 list of supercomputers, as announced at SC10, Nov. 13-19 in New Orleans, shows that nearly 80 percent of the world’s top 500 systems have Intel processors inside. Such machines are increasingly featured in computers designed for geophysics, financial calculations and scientific research focusing on mainstream applications such as improving the safety of football players and enhancing medical imaging.

According to the list, Intel chips now power three of the top five systems – in addition to the No. 1 system. Xeon 5600 series processors are a key building block in the No. 3 system (Shenzhen), and the newly listed No. 4 system at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

The new Intel Xeon Processor 7500 series is featured in the Bull Supernode system at CEA, newly listed at No. 6. Intel’s ranking has grown incredibly in 10 years, going from just six systems in the November 2000 list to 398 or nearly 80 percent today.

“Our Xeon processor roadmap continues to deliver hugely powerful supercomputers that are helping solve mankind’s greatest challenges,” said Rajeeb Hazra, general manager of Intel’s High Performance Computing organization. “Securing the top position on the Top500 is also a source of great pride for us, and demonstrates the tremendous leaps in performance and versatility that our processors are delivering across a range of compelling workloads.”