SGI claims lead in supercomputer race

Yeah, but Virginia Tech stomps it with fewer processors!: Give it up for the PowerPC G5! Only 2200 of them in the form of 1100 dual-CPU Apple Xserve G5s! #7 on November's list, vs. #17 for your 2560 Opterons. Think clock speed made the difference? I doubt it: only .1GHz difference per CPU (2.3 for the PowerPCs vs. 2.2 for the Opterons).

Read the numbers and weep:
* 2,500 2.2GHz Opterons: 11,264 peak, 8,061 sustained, #17 rank
* 2,200 2.3Ghz PowerPCs: 20,240 peak, 12,250 sustained, #7 rank

The PowerPCs are over HALF AGAIN faster than the Opterons at SUSTAINED GFlops, and nearly TWICE as fast at peak GFlops, with 300 FEWER CPUs that are each less than 5% faster at clock speed! Note also the REALLY bad news: despite the G5's admittedly much lower efficiency (Sustained-to-Peak ratio), the G5's SUSTAINED performance is STILL faster (and by about 10%, roughly double the clock-speed advantage) than the Opteron's PEAK performance! With 300 FEWER CPUs, remember!

Here, need a tissue?; Posted by: Joel R Posted on: 12/06/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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Don't forget ILM asky | 10/26/04

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Interesting John L. Ries | 10/26/04

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