Huge Churn in World's Supercomputer Market

For the first time since the Top 500 List was issued in 1993, all 500 computers listed could handle a teraflop, or a trillion calculations per second. Number 500 on the list can crunch 1.17 teraflops. No supercomputer on the 1997 Top 500 List would now qualify.

The rapid increase in compute power among the most powerful supercomputers means that 201 of the 500 computers listed on the last Top500 list in November 2004 have fallen out of the rankings.

IBM supercomputers rank No. 1 and No. 2 on the list -- and account for six of the top 10. The Power-based Blue Gene machines have gained a considerable reputation. IBM's Blue Gene/L, currently the world's fastest computer, is capable of handling 136.8 trillion calculations per second. It is located at Lawrence Livermore Labs in California doing nuclear weapons simulations.

IBM also dominates the low-end, with 193 systems running on low-cost Linux software and composed of hundreds or thousands of mass-market computer chips from Intel and AMD. The big winner is Intel, whose low-cost, mass-produced microprocessor sare now used in 333 of the top 500 supercomputers, up from 287 only a year ago.

HP fell to 26 percent, or 131 of the most powerful supercomputers ranked in the semi-annual Top 500 List, down from 170, or 34 percent, just six months ago.

The Peoples Republic of China now has 19 supercomputers on the Top 500 list, just behind Japan with 23 machines.