Worldwide factory revenue for the high performance computing (HPC) technical server market reached $10.3bn in 2011, up 8.4% from $9.5bn in 2010, according to a report from International Data Corporation.
A decline of 6.9% was seen in the unit shipments in 2011 year over year, as average selling prices grew, indicating a continued shift to large system sales, the report said.
IBM with 32.6% share of the overall factory revenue was the market leader followed by HP with a share of 32.1%.
The "Supercomputers" segment for HPC systems selling for $500,000 and up grew 24% to reach nearly $4.4bn in revenues during a year of continuing worldwide economic recovery.
IDC program vice president for Technical Computing Earl Joseph said HPC technical servers, especially Supercomputers, have been closely linked not only to scientific advances but also to industrial innovation and economic competitiveness.
"For this reason, nations and regions across the world are increasing their investments in supercomputing even in today’s challenging economic conditions," Joseph said.
Revenue from "Workgroup" HPC systems sold for below $100,000 was down 4% to $1.2bn as buyers continued to delay or cancel some planned acquisitions in this segment.
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The HPC technical server market is expected to grow at 7% to 8% yearly rate to reach $13.4bn in revenues by 2015, according to IDC.
In terms of vendor growth, IBM achieved 19.3% growth in 2011, while revenues for HP and Dell grew by 9.6% and 2.1%, respectively.
