The 'Best-of-the-Best' Supercomputers Leverage AMD Opteron Processors

At the International Supercomputing Conference, AMD announced that AMD Opteron processors continue to power many of the highest-performing supercomputers in the world, including the top two overall. AMD Opteron processor highlights from the latest Top500 Supercomputer Sites list include:

•  For the third straight time, the AMD Opteron processor helps power the number one "Roadrunner" supercomputer;

• The Cray "Jaguar" supercomputer based on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors at Oak Ridge National Labs is number two;

• AMD is utilized in nine of the top 20 supercomputers, more than any other processor provider;

• Four of the top 10 supercomputers use AMD Opteron processors;

• The AMD Opteron processor powers 20 Cray supercomputers, including six in the top 25;

• The recently launched Six-Core AMD Opteron processor (formerly code-named "Istanbul") has already appeared in two Cray XT5 supercomputers;

• The top two academic research supercomputers are based on Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors - "Kraken" at the University of Tennessee is number six and "Ranger" at the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is number eight.

 The semi-annual Top500 Supercomputer Sites list determines its rankings based on the LINPACK benchmark. Recently, Advanced Clustering Technologies published LINPACK scores based on the Six-Core AMD Opteron processor which demonstrate a remarkable cost-per-GFLOP of $35.21. 

Supporting Resources:

• Photos of NICS Supercomputer

• AMD Opteron Processor Benchmarks

• @Work Blog Post from John Fruehe

• Video from Cray discussing the benefits of "Istanbul"