Filed under: Linux
Loongson processors were meant to be used in the Dawning 5000a supercomputer back in 2008, but as they lacked Windows compatibility they were ultimately switched out for AMD processors. This year, the Chinese Academy of Sciences intends to make good on its promises and build a supercomputer using Chinese processors -- and it'll run Linux!
The actual technical specifications are mind boggling (take a look if you like), but I'll try to boil it down to something you can make sense of. It's safe to assume they are going for #1 position on the Supercomputer TOP500. To reach that, they need to beat the current leader -- the Cray Jaguar -- which clocks in at 1.75 petaflops -- 1.75 thousand trillion calculations per second, or 1,750,000,000,000,000 if you like numbers with lots of zeros
Take a moment to comprehend how many operations per second that is.
One analyst estimates that only 782 16-core Loongson processors would be required to break 1 petaflop -- but it's usually the infrastructure that's the real challenge with supercomputers. You need motherboards and controllers that can harness the power of 1,500 CPUs. Ultimately it's all for nought if the operating system is unable to utilize all of the resources -- and that's where Linux comes in! Since 2000, Linux has grown from obscurity in the supercomputer segment to almost 90% of the TOP500.
[via Technology Review -- if I got that 1.75 petaflops figure wrong, please correct me in the comments. I hate maths.]
China plans home brew champion supercomputer originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 20 Jan 2010 07:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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