Linux Supercomputer Roadrunner Takes Petaflops Hurdle
The Roadrunner supercomputer developed by IBM for the Department of Energy at the Los Alamos National Laboratory is the first to take the Petaflops hurdle of 1.026 billion operations per second.
The hybrid machine running on a Red Hat Linux-based operating system easily outpaces the previous leader in the Top500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers, BlueGene/L (478 Teraflops) again by IBM, which achieves just half of Roadrunner’s performance Roadrunner will mainly be used for military research into nuclear weapons, with some capacity also being dedicated to researching the human genome and to weather simulations. The hybrid machine combines the Cell processor designed for the PlayStation with AMD x86 processors, with no less than 6948 dual-core Opteron chips installed. 12,960 Cell processors form part two of the machine, which has no less than 80 terabytes of memory, residing in 288 BladeCenter racks and occupying a floor space of 6000 square meters. The supercomputer is comparatively frugal with respect to power requirements, clocking up 376 million operations per watt. IBM expects Roadrunner to take one of the top notches in the list of green supercomputers. The investment in the project was around US$ 100 m says IBM.
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
System76 Refreshes the Lemur Laptop
If you're looking for a laptop with tons of power and battery, look no further than the latest iteration of the System76 Lemur Pro.
-
More than 43 Million Lines of Code in Linux Kernel 7.2
Using the cloc utility, Michael Larabel of Phoronix discovered that Linux kernel 7.2 has over 43 million lines of code.
-
Kubuntu Focus Goes Ultra
The Kubuntu Focus team has upped the performance ante of its M2 and Zr laptops with the latest, greatest CPUs from Intel.
-
Linux Gamers May Soon See Less Mouse Lag in KDE Plasma
Gamers using KDE’s Plasma desktop have been suffering from a slight input delay in mouse movement that could lead to getting fragged.
-
Three Lines of Code Improve Linux Storage Performance
A developer changed three lines of code, giving Linux storage performance a 5% bump.
-
AUR Hit Again with Malicious Packages
Once again the Arch User Repository is plagued by a high volume of malicious packages.
-
Alpine Linux 3.24 Features Fresh Desktops and a Newer Kernel
If you're a fan of Alpine Linux, it's time to upgrade because the latest version has been released with KDE Plasma 6.6, Gnome 50, and Linux kernel 6.18 LTS.
-
EU Open Source Strategy Plays Key Role in Tech Sovereignty Package
Comprehensive measures adopted by the European Commission aim to reduce dependency on non-EU countries.
-
Linux Foundation Report Indicates AI Driving Tech Hiring
Within growing security and skills gaps, AI has been found to be a positive driving force behind tech hiring trends in Europe.
-
United Nations Open Source Portal Goes Live
A new open source portal seeks to coordinate and scale open source efforts across the United Nations system.