Supercomputer to Hit 1.6 Petaflops With 16,000 Cell Chips 260
tygerstripes writes, "IBM has announced that they are gearing up to build the world's fastest supercomputer, more than four times faster than the reigning champ, IBM's BlueGene/L. Nicknamed 'Roadrunner,' the new machine will be a hybrid of off-the-shelf CPUs and Cell chips designed for the PS3. Roadrunner is to be installed at Los Alamos National Laboratory, occupying 1,100 square metres of floorspace (that's a square about 110 feet on a side). According to the BBC: 'The computer will contain 16,000 standard processors working alongside 16,000 Cell processors... each Cell is capable of 256 billion calculations per second.'"
Now... (Score:5, Funny)
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Actually, this will be the "minimum requirements" to play DMF by the time it comes out. Obviously you need more RAM if you want to experience the advanced features...
Whew, right under the wire! (Score:5, Funny)
That's sort of fast. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:That's sort of fast. (Score:4, Funny)
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For the first time in ages that joke was funny.
Also building a slightly slower computer... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Also building a slightly slower computer... (Score:5, Funny)
However part of the problem (Score:5, Funny)
These components had a tendency to either explode at in-opportune moments, or behave in a manner that while was true to the letter of their description was totally ineffective for the desired purpose.
At the moment each side is gathering its hoards of lawyers and all involved are jumping up and down, waving thigh-bones in the air and screaming incomprehensible abuse at each other.
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These components had a tendency to either explode at in-opportune moments, or behave in a manner.....
You said "acme" - I think you meant "Sony".
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Re:However part of the problem (Score:5, Funny)
Apparently, when the Acme Rocket Sled, Acme Giant Rubber Band or the Acme Bat-Man suit reach their point of failure, every particle of the unfortunate user is compelled into a quantum superposition (known as the Chuck Jones state) where the particles of the user appear to exist outside of the normal flow of time, during which the user can apparently communicate with the outside using messages written on signs. The wavefunction collapses, however when the user realizes the peril of the current situation; the user returns to normal time and is contacted catastrophically by the approaching train/TNT detonation/boulder/ground/ground followed by a pursuant boulder.
IBM scientists believe that useful calculations could be made nearly instantaneously from the perspective of outside observers, if only the user inside the Jones state could be induced to work complex math problems and write the answer on a picket sign, rather than simply using such signs for messages like, "Why Me?", "Not Again!", "?!?!?!?!?!" or "Ouch."
NASA is also working with Acme to determine the physical mechanism by which the Acme Portable Hole functions.
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Good Lord! Another
I see through your 'acme' shenanigans.
PS3 delayed? (Score:4, Insightful)
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Maybe not so much a joke after all?
-nB
Re:PS3 delayed? (Score:5, Informative)
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Flops? CPS? (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, it's certainly better than the old "megahurts" races. But I think they could come up with something better.
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Bogomips? [wikipedia.org]
Definitely flops (Score:3, Informative)
PR Numbers (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Flops? CPS? (Score:5, Interesting)
I was thinking the same thing. Running the numbers, 256 GFlop * 16,000 => 4.096 PFlop @ single precision. So if IBM means SP flops, something is slowing its theoretical max down by 2.5x. But Cell's DP perf yields 18.2 * 16,000 => .292 PFlop @ DP. So that's not it either.
It's long been rumored that a post-PS3 Cell is in development that can pipeline DP flops. Its max theoretical DP perf would still be half of SP because it's just 2 DP values per 128-bit register instead of 4. AND, if you figure they lower the GHz to 3.2 to cut the heat output in half, you arrive at the magical number... 1.638 PFlop.
So can we take this as evidence that there now exists a Cell that performs DP calculations pipelined?
Feet/Metres/Meters (Score:5, Informative)
Why mix the units like that? It's either 33 meters a side, or its 12,100 square feet. Mixing units is the sort of thing that can only lead to errors.
And for the record, sqrt(1100m2) = 33.17 meters = 108.83 feet a side. 110 feet per side gets you an extra 24.13 square meters
Re:Feet/Metres/Meters (Score:4, Funny)
And for the record, sqrt(1100m2) = 33.17 meters = 108.83 feet a side. 110 feet per side gets you an extra 24.13 square meters .. enough for 4 interns including desks.
You mean in the room WITH the supercomputer? Oooh! I call dibs on the sauna office!
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You missed the word "about" (Score:2)
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'Non-metric people' are used to units being mixed up... The solution taken by many is to either give up and think that 'math is difficult', or to only use rounding/approximations for 'quick calculations': '5000 feet per mile' (instead of 5280)...
Rounding like that is what results in allowing space for the 4 interns... Hurrah for rounding: Where would the inte
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Re:Feet/Metres/Meters (Score:4, Funny)
Training to be a rocket scientist?
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Well, the original article says it's about 12,000 square feet, but it's the BBC, so they nicely give an approximate in metric of 1,100 square metres since more of their readers might know what that means.
The po
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So the price was (Score:5, Interesting)
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Nope, things don't scale linearly, most especially not when you're talking government contracting. For comparison, Red Storm at Sandia National Labs cost $90 million. http://www.techcommjournal.org/PDFSVol3No3/16topt
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Other government bodies that could buy a PS3:
NASA, but they'd crash it into something and want a new one.
The IRS, but it would depreciate to 20% of its value the day they bought it, unless they sold it on eBay in case its fair value would be $10,000 regardless of the auction final price.
The Marines, except they play Wii, because Marines will only touch a console made for Real Men (TM).
The Na
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Re:So the price was (Score:4, Insightful)
First off, I believe IBM manufactures the cell processors for Sony, so it probably didn't cost them that much for the actual processors.
But, don't forget the $58 million in IBM consultants who built the damned thing. That's the real cost of this.
Cheers
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And yes by *WE* I am including myself and the people I work with on this project. (and yes incase you didnt figure it out, I work at IBM)
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So are you a lawyer or in marketing?
State Bird (Score:4, Insightful)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadrunner_(bird) [wikipedia.org]
It was always ironic to see them running up and down the road in front of my grandparents home.
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Was it because your grandparents lived in Vermont? Come on - don't leave us in suspense!
Would you like to play a game? (Score:4, Funny)
"The laboratory is owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE). Eventually the machine could be used for a programme that ensures the US nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable, the DOE said in a statement."
Why do I get a weird feeling that I've seen this sort of thing in one too many movies?
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Turn your key, sir!
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Just crack the seal on one, turn it loose and a'splode it - see what happens.
Maybe schedule it for the 4th of July next year, get a double bang for your buck.
What they are doing now is akin to buying a gazillion dollars worth of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, keeping it in the freezer for four decades and then spending another gazillion dollars in software and hardware to determine if it still ta
Um, no, not exactly (Score:4, Funny)
And this is from BBC News, no less. <sigh>
Why should IBM be surprised? (Score:2)
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Here [ibm.com]'s the original press release.
And here [ibm.com]'s the ISSCC "opening the kimono" press release.
Funny, lots of talk about "supercomputer on a chip", no mention of PS3.
This application is EXACTLY what IBM has been talking about for this chip all along. And they did all the work.
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While it doesn't mention the Playstation 3, the mention of Sony being involved would certainly seem to indicate that Playstation 3 was considered.
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Actually, IBM brings the CPU design brains more than the fab. They offer the service of designing custom processors and they have much experience in this arena, plus they happen to have PowerPC available for the controlling proc.
Lame (Score:3, Funny)
what about Blue Gene/P? (Score:2)
I don't think this Cell based thing is its replacement. If BGP is still coming, it should be coming soon:
link [spscicomp.org]
And looking back 20 years from now (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:And looking back 20 years from now (Score:4, Funny)
20 years from now behind a horse... (Score:2)
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Sure it's fast (Score:4, Funny)
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Link to IBM's Cell SDK (Score:3, Informative)
The toolchain and a simulator are freely available and run on Fedora Core 5 systems. Take a look for yourself.
I wonder.... (Score:2)
Hmmm (Score:2)
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GHz is a measurement of how fast the clock cycle of a processor is. This system will have lots of processors, that will contibute to the computing power (# of flops [floating point operations]) of the overall system. So, GHz isn't a good measurement. However, I'll try to give you a meaningless comparison.
From wikipedia:
Big deal (Score:3, Funny)
My favorite line in TFA (Score:2)
I'm surprised this wasn't tagged "AMD" sooner... (Score:2, Informative)
And, the article also confirms that the machine will indeed be running Linux.
Re:Billion or billion? (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah, go figure. Stupid Brits can't even speak English.
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Glad to be of service. Thank you, come again!
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Long scale is the English translation of the French term échelle longue, which designates a system of numeric names in which the word billion means a million millions.
For most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the United Kingdom uniformly used the long scale, while the United
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Shouldn't be a problem unless... (Score:2)
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I think that the "official" changeover (as far as the treasury was concerned) was late 60s / early 70s. A quick google can't find a cite for it but a post here mentions "the official announcement some three decades ago":
http://66.249.93.104/search?q=cache:O4P5O5xh-6sJ:w ww.translatorscafe.com/cafe/MegaBBS/thread- [66.249.93.104]
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Moreover it's simpler: From the billion on, the prefix is named after latin numer names: bi->2, tri->3 etc.
With the "old British" system, an "n-ion" is a million to the power of n. Quite simple.
With the US system, an "n-ion" is thousand to the power of (n+1). An extra complication. Not much, but still.
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I prefer a system of prefixes, only. If your statement of -iard as a suffix is true, the wikipedia entry [wikipedia.org] needs to be updated with trilliards, quadrilliards, quintilliards, etc.
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Indeed.
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That's a complete non-argument: The reason the system changed in GB is probably being flooded with "US-billions", and the absolute worst thing is if you never know if the "billion" you read is 10^9 or 10^12. And the fact that you never heared "milliard" may simply be due to not being old enough.
Also note that in France the "-ion/-iard" scheme was the successful one, d
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Yeah, why do they use all those buttons in planes and stuff!!!?!?!! It would surely be a lot more efficient if they just used a one button mouse to fly them? In fact, get rid of the buttons altogether!! Evil!
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Thats about the closest your going to get at this point.
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I actually enjoy the process of figuring out how to program for something like the cell, but once I've been through it once, then I don't want to have to do it that way anymore. The joy is in solving the problem.