Twice each year the Top500 Supercomputer list is compiled. It lists the most powerful supercomputers in the world. China now regularly
Supercomputers are ranked based on their RMAX, which represents the highest ever computing performance recorded by that machine. They also have a RPEAK, the maximum estimated performance capacity the supercomputer can run at.
CBR lists the current top ten supercomputer based on Top 500’s rank.
1. Sunway TaihuLight
Country: China
RMAX: 93,014.6 tflops/s (93 trillion teraflops)
China has kept its place as the home of the world’s most powerful computer. Located in the National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, Sunway TaihuLight is way ahead of the next contender, also based in China.
Sunway TaihuLight has 93 petaflop/s (quadrillions of calculations per second) on the LINPACK benchmark. Theoretically, the computer has the potential to reach over 125 petaflop/s, nearly as much as all the other supercomputers featuring on this list put together.
The supercomputer has 10.6 million cores, a power of 15,371KW and a memory of 1,310,720 GB.
The computer was developed by the National Research Center of Parallel Computer Engineering & Technology (NRCPC) and runs on Sunway SW26010 260C 1.45GHz processor and Sunway’s RaiseOS 2.0.5.
2. Tianhe-2
Country: China
RMAX: 33.862.7 tflops/s
In second place is another Chinese heavy-weight, the Tianhe-2, otherwise known as MilkyWay-2. The computer is located at the National Super Computer Centre in Guangzhou, China.
With 33.8 petaflop/s, Tianhe-2 has the capacity to reach a RPEAK of 54.9 petaflop/s. The Intel-based supercomputer has 3.1 million cores, a total power of 17,808 KW and 1,024,000 GB of memory.
Its processor is an Intel Xeon E5-2692v2 12C 2.2GHz and the OS is Kylin Linux.
3. Titan
Country: USA
RMAX: 17,590 tflops/s
The USA, who led supercomputer rankings for many years, has found a place on the third spot of the rank. The Cray-based Titan supercomputer is located at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in Tennessee, US.
The national laboratory is managed by the US Department of Energy. Titan, with its 560,640 cores, has a performance of 17.5 petaflop/s. Its RPEAK sits at 27.1 petaflop/s.
Power capabilities are 8,209 Kw and memory sits at 710,144 GB. The Os is based on Cray Linux Environment and the processor is Opteron 6274 16C 2.2GHz.
4. Sequoia
Country: USA
RMAX: 17,173.2
Named after the tallest trees on Earth, Sequoia comes fourth in the supercomputing ranking at a RMAX of 17.1 petaflop/s.
Its RPEAK is estimated to be 20.1 petaflop/s, with the number of cores amounting to 1,572,864 and memory making up to 1,572,864 GB.
Sequia is based on IBM’s supercomputer technology and has a power capacity of 7,890 Kw. The processor is a Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz and the OS is Linux.
5. K
Country: Japan
RMAX: 10,510 tflops/s
The K computer is located at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for Computational Science (AICS) and has been manufactured by Fujitsu.
It has a linpack performance of 10.5 petaflop/s and a RPEAK of 11.2 petaflop/s, amounting up to 705,024 cores and 12,659 kW of power.
Memory stands at 1,410,048 GB. The processor is a SPARC64 VIIIfx 8C 2GHz and the OS is again Linux.
6. Mira
Country: US
RMAX: 8,586.6 tflops/s
Supercomputer Mira is located at the Argonne National Laboratory, also managed by the US Department of Energy.
It has a RMAX of 8.5 petaflop/s and a RPEAK of 10 petaflop/s, with power reaching up to 3,945 kW.
It was built by IBM, uses the Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz processor and the OS is once more Linux.
7. Trinity
Country: US
RMAX: 8,100.9
The fourth American supercomputer on the list Trinity, located at the Los Alamos National Laboratory, in the city of Los Alamos. The facility is also supervised by the US’s Department of Energy.
Trinity has a RMAX of 8.1 petaflop/s and a RPEAK of 11 petaflop/s. Power has not been disclosed.
The supercomputer runs on Cray Linux Environment and uses a Xeon E5-2698v3 16C 2.3GHz processor.
8. Piz Daint
Country: Switzerland
RMAX: 6,271 tflops/s
Europe’s first supercomputer comes up on the rank in eighth place. The machine is located at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS), in Lugano.
It has 6.2 petaflop/s in terms of RMAX and its RPEAK is estimated at 7.7 petaflop/s. Power goes up to 2,325 kW.
Piz Daint has been built by Cray and operates with Cray Linux Environment OS. It uses a
Xeon E5-2670 8C 2.6GHz processor.
9. Hazel Hen
Country: Germany
RMAX: 5,640.2 tflops/s
Located in the south-eastern German city of Stuttgart, Hazel Hen is installed at the Höchstleistungsrechenzentrum Stuttgart (HLRS).
Power has not been disclosed, however, its record performance has been registered at 5.6 petaflop/s. RPEAK is estimated at 7.4 petaflop/s.
Also built by Cray, the supercomputer runs on Cray Linux Environment OS and uses a Xeon E5-2680v3 12C 2.5GHz processor.
10. Shaheen II
Country: Saudi Arabia
RMAX: 5,537 tflops/s
The Middle East is home to the tenth best supercomputing and this one if based at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, in Jeddah.
Shaheen II has a linpack performance of 5.5 petaflop/s and a RPEAK of 7.2 petaflop/s, with 2,834 kW of power.
The supercomputer has been built by Cray and uses the Cray Linux Environment OS, plus a Xeon E5-2698v3 16C 2.3GHz processor.
