{"id":13474,"date":"2014-11-21T10:40:02","date_gmt":"2014-11-21T09:40:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.planet3dnow.de\/cms\/?p=13474"},"modified":"2014-11-21T10:40:02","modified_gmt":"2014-11-21T09:40:02","slug":"chinas-tianhe-2-supercomputer-retains-top-spot-on-fourth-consecutive-top500-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.planet3dnow.de\/cms\/13474-chinas-tianhe-2-supercomputer-retains-top-spot-on-fourth-consecutive-top500-list\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s Tianhe\u20112 Supercomputer Retains Top Spot on Fourth Consecutive TOP500<\/span> List"},"content":{"rendered":"

MANNHEIM<\/span>, Ger\u00adma\u00adny; BERKELEY<\/span>, Calif.; and KNOXVILLE<\/span>, Tenn.\u2014For the fourth con\u00adse\u00adcu\u00adti\u00adve time, Tianhe\u20112, a super\u00adcom\u00adpu\u00adter deve\u00adlo\u00adped by China\u2019s Natio\u00adnal Uni\u00adver\u00adsi\u00adty of Defen\u00adse Tech\u00adno\u00adlo\u00adgy, has retai\u00adned its posi\u00adti\u00adon as the world\u2019s No. 1 sys\u00adtem with a per\u00adfor\u00admance of 33.86 petaflop\/s (qua\u00addril\u00adli\u00adons of cal\u00adcu\u00adla\u00adti\u00adons per second) on the Lin\u00adpack bench\u00admark, accor\u00adding to the 44th edi\u00adti\u00adon of the twice-year\u00adly TOP500<\/span> list of the world\u2019s most powerful supercomputers.<\/p>\n

In fact, the\u00adre was litt\u00adle chan\u00adge among the ran\u00adking of the world\u2019s top 10 super\u00adcom\u00adpu\u00adters in the latest edi\u00adti\u00adon of the clo\u00adse\u00adly wat\u00adched list. The only new ent\u00adry was at num\u00adber 10\u2014a 3.57 petaflop\/s Cray CS-Storm sys\u00adtem instal\u00adled at an undis\u00adc\u00adlo\u00adsed U.S. govern\u00adment site.<\/p>\n

A detail\u00aded ana\u00adly\u00adsis of the latest TOP500<\/span> list will be pre\u00adsen\u00adted Tues\u00adday, Nov. 18, at the SC14<\/span> con\u00adfe\u00adrence in New Orleans. At that time, the full list will also be published at TOP500<\/span>.org.<\/p>\n

Alt\u00adhough the United Sta\u00adtes remains the top coun\u00adtry in terms of over\u00adall sys\u00adtems with 231, this num\u00adber is down from 233 in June 2014 and down from 265 on the Novem\u00adber 2013 list. The U.S. is nea\u00adring its his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adcal low num\u00adber on the list.<\/p>\n

The num\u00adber of Euro\u00adpean sys\u00adtems rose to 130, up from 116 last June, while the num\u00adber of sys\u00adtems across Asia drop\u00adped from 132 to 120. The num\u00adber of Chi\u00adne\u00adse sys\u00adtems on the list also drop\u00adped, now at 61, com\u00adpared to 76 in June 2014. Over the same peri\u00adod, Japan increased its num\u00adber of sys\u00adtems from 30 to 32.<\/p>\n

Slowing trend in performance growth<\/h3>\n

Sin\u00adce its incep\u00adti\u00adon in June 1993, the TOP500<\/span> list has ser\u00adved as a con\u00adsis\u00adtent mea\u00adsu\u00adre of the per\u00adfor\u00admance growth of super\u00adcom\u00adpu\u00adters, sin\u00adce all sys\u00adtems are ran\u00adked accor\u00adding to per\u00adfor\u00admance run\u00adning the same Lin\u00adpack bench\u00admark appli\u00adca\u00adti\u00adon. With the latest list, the over\u00adall list-by-list growth rates of per\u00adfor\u00admance con\u00adti\u00adnues to be at his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adcal\u00adly low values for the last two years.<\/p>\n

This lag in the over\u00adall avera\u00adge per\u00adfor\u00admance of all 500 sys\u00adtems is noti\u00adce\u00adab\u00adly influen\u00adced by the very lar\u00adge sys\u00adtems at the top of the list. Recent instal\u00adla\u00adti\u00adons of very lar\u00adge sys\u00adtems \u2013 up to June 2013 \u2013 have coun\u00adter\u00adac\u00adted the redu\u00adced growth rate at the bot\u00adtom of the list, but with few new sys\u00adtems at the top of the past few lists, the over\u00adall growth rate is now slo\u00adwing. This offers an indi\u00adca\u00adti\u00adon that the mar\u00adket for the very lar\u00adgest sys\u00adtems might curr\u00adent\u00adly behave dif\u00adfer\u00adent\u00adly from the mar\u00adket of mid-sized and smal\u00adler supercomputers.<\/p>\n

This is sup\u00adport\u00aded by the fact that the per\u00adfor\u00admance of the last sys\u00adtem on the list (No. 500) has con\u00adsis\u00adt\u00adent\u00adly lag\u00adged behind his\u00adto\u00adri\u00adcal growth trends for the past five years, a tra\u00adjec\u00adto\u00adry that now increa\u00adses by 55 per\u00adcent each year. Bet\u00adween 1994 and 2008, howe\u00adver, the annu\u00adal growth rate for the No. 500 sys\u00adtems\u2019 per\u00adfor\u00admance was 90 percent.<\/p>\n

On the latest edi\u00adti\u00adon of the list, the No. 500 sys\u00adtem recor\u00added a per\u00adfor\u00admance of 153.6 tera\u00adflops (tril\u00adli\u00adons of cal\u00adcu\u00adla\u00adti\u00adons per second), com\u00adpared with 133.7 teraflop\/s six months ago. The last sys\u00adtem on the newest list was lis\u00adted at posi\u00adti\u00adon 421 in the pre\u00advious TOP500<\/span>. This repres\u00adents the lowest tur\u00adno\u00adver rate in the list in two decades.<\/p>\n

Other highlights from the 44th list<\/h3>\n