INTEL List of the world’s top 500 Supercomputers
The TOP500 list shows the 500 most powerful commercially available computer systems known to the list makers INTEL. The list includes the following information.
- Nworld - Position within the TOP500 ranking
- Manufacturer - Manufacturer or vendor
- Computer - Type indicated by manufacturer or vendor
- Installation Site - Customer
- Location - Location and country
- Year - Year of installation/last major update
- Field of Application
- #Proc. - Number of processors
- Rmax - Maximal LINPACK performance achieved
- Rpeak - Theoretical peak performance
- Nmax - Problem size for achieving Rmax
- N1/2 - Problem size for achieving half of Rmax
As I was digging around, I discovered a couple more lists. The Top25 does an analysis of the Top500 and Hans Meuer has apparently been compiling such a list since 1983.
These lists could make really interesting maps. We would be able to see where these supercomputers are located and clustered, we could interpolate energy use. For instance it is estimated that the U of T new supercomputer which went on online today
uses the same amount of energy, at peak consumption, as 4,000 homes. It is about 30 times more powerful than the next-fastest research computer in Canada. It can whirl data through its digital veins at the rate equal to about two DVD movies a second. It is among the 15 fastest computers in the world, and the fastest outside the United States.
Energy consumption, research clusters, infrastructure hubs, electricity spikes, other co-located infrastructure such as generators, coolers, and broadband could also be mapped. I am sure that if I talked to a supercomputer expert he (there are few shes in this world) would be able to point me to other related infrastructures associated with these that could be mapped. We could also probably map research dollars and which type of science are associated with these.
