IBM set to test the fastest computer in the world

"Moving from teraflop to petaflop computing is a big deal," said Olds. "Here's a comparison I like to use. The human brain is estimated to have about a 100 teraflop capacity. We only use maybe 10 per cent of that -- some of us even less. That means the Livermore computer is about 4.7 times faster than the brain, and the new Roadrunner system will be more than double that. It's seriously fast."

The new IBM supercomputer is the second incarnation of Roadrunner. The original Roadrunner, a cluster machine that can hit 70 teraflops, is in use at the Los Alamos lab. The older Linux-based system runs AMD Opteron chips.

This new version of Roadrunner, also runs Linux and gets its hefty power boost by adding the Cell chips, originally designed jointly by IBM, Toshiba and Sony for the latter's PlayStation 3, to the Opteron base. The hybrid supercomputer will use the Cell chips for massive calculations.

"We had done enough studies to see that it's one of the best computational chips in the world," said Grice, who first thought of using the Cell chip in a supercomputer. "It was built to do high performance computations for video games. The aspects that make it really good for gaming, made it really good for supercomputing. It's not running anything to do with the [operating system]. It's focused solely on calculations."

Steve Conway, an analyst at IDC, expects supercomputer manufacturers to design a lot more hybrid machines down the road.

"It's really an interesting design, combining x86 processors with a processor from the domain of video gaming," he added. "It fits into a much broader trend toward hybrids that goes beyond supercomputing. We believe this trend will accelerate."

The new Roadrunner uses 3.9 megawatts of power, which Grice noted is enough to power 39,000 100-watt light bulbs. It has 6,948 dual-core Opterons on IBM LS21 Blades, as well as 12,960 Cell processors on IBM QS22 blades. The machine, which has 80 terabytes of memory, has 296 IBM BladeCenter H racks. It takes up 6,000 square feet, uses 57 miles of fiber optic cable and weighs in at 500,000 pounds.

Once the IBM technicians finish testing it, they'll pack it up on 21 tractor trailer trucks and move it to Los Alamos in New Mexico, where they'll reassemble it and test it all over again.

IDC's Conway noted that the next several weeks should prove interesting. The Top 500 list of supercomputers will be updated on June 17 at the International Supercomputing Conference in Dresden, Germany. He says any company close to hitting a petaflop will be testing their supercomputers to try and make the list. "It has symbolic importance," said Conway. "It's like the four-minute mile. It gives people confidence that they can hit 10 petaflops and 1,000 petaflops."

Last week, NASA and partners SGI and Intel announced that they are working on a supercomputer that they expect will pass the petaflop barrier next year and hit 10 petaflops by 2012.