Trade.Information

Details of Blue Gene/P

The ecological supercomputer more powerful than 100mila PC

Tripled performances, block minimums and bottom energetic consumption: it is the identity card of Blue Gene/P, the second generation of supercomputer of IBM, the successor of by now the former faster computer to the world, the Blue Gene/L, introduced the slid November. What is able to make this wonder technological can be intuire from that they are the dowries that characterize it: continuous operation in atmosphere real to advanced speeds to "petaflop", and that is is gone beyond a quadrilione of operations to the prestazionali second, and peaks that touch the three petaflop (regarding the 280 teraflop of the illustrious predecessore).

Numbers from fantascienza, that they would make to impallidire Has it, "computerone" been born from the brilliant mind of Stanley Kubrik for its "Odissea in Spazio". Blue Gene/P, in fact, and these are comprehensible examples from also who computer science one are not, have an elaboration ability 100mila times more powerful than that one than a normal PC and are in a position to elaborating more operations in a second of one battery of notebook high approximately three kilometers. Completing the directory of the technical attributes of new creature IBM it goes therefore evidenced as on the chip of Blue Gene/P four are integrated and not more solo two processori PowerPC 450 to vlf (850 Mhz against 700MHz) and like every chip it is in a position to executing 13,6 billions of operations to the second: that it means that a square silicon card from 60 cm that contains 32 of these microprocessori succeeds in to produce something like 435 billions of operations to the second. And that in order to arrive to the three petaflop of which over Blue Gene/P puts with until 884,736 processori it lodges to you in 216 "closets" - the so-called rack - high little less than two meters.

An ecological heart and one revolution for the medicine

One of the points of force of Blue Gene/P, like anticipated, is the consumptions, seven inferior times regarding those of whichever other supercomputer. The all guaranteeing ability to elaboration of scientific equations in areas which physics of particles and the nanotecnologie to unattainable speeds previously and costs legacies to the requirementses of electric power reduced to acceptable terms perlomeno. Between the possible applications of the new supercomputer, destined to operate it is in field trades them that in scientific field, many regard the medical field.

Blue Gene/P, in fact, can give the support necessary to reproduce an entire organ of an individual in order to determine its interactions with a drug, managing (without to make rerun to all the power available) the simulation of experiments clinicians on 27 million patients in a single afternoon. Between the first utilizzatori of the new supercomputer there are the Argonne National Laboratory of the Department of the Energy of the United States, the Stony Brook University, the Brookhaven National Labs (that they have collaborated with the German IBM to the plan), Max Planck Society and Forschungszentrum Julich and the Daresbury Laboratorydella Science and Technology Facilities Council of the Cheshire, in United Kingdom.

It was of "petaflop computing" therefore is begun and the great maneuvers in the field of the supercomputers are not stopped: the Sun Microsystems, in the course of an event that is kept in these days in Germany, will introduce in preview Constellation System, an architecture that will be able to catch up ability to peak of 500 teraflop. (G.Rus.)