Top 500

Overview

Started in 1993, the TOP500 lists the fastest computers used today, ranked according to Linpack benchmark results. Published twice a year, the TOP500 list provides an important tool for tracking usage trends in high-performance computing. The 35th TOP500 List was released in Hamburg, Germany during the ISC'10 conference.

TOP500 35th List Highlights

InfiniBand adapters and switch solutions demonstrate the highest growth on the TOP500. As reported in the 35th edition of the TOP500 list, the growth rate of Mellanox InfiniBand-connected systems has grown 37 percent, and now represents nearly 41 percent of the TOP500. Mellanox ConnectX® InfiniBand adapters and switch systems based on its InfiniScale® IV switch silicon provide the scalable, low-latency, and power-efficient interconnect for the world’s fastest supercomputers, representing Mellanox InfiniBand enables the highest system efficiency and utilization, up to 96 percent, and provides users with the best return on investment for their high-performance computing server and storage infrastructure computing requirements.

Highlights of InfiniBand usage on the June 2010 TOP500 list include:

• InfiniBand is the only growing standard interconnect technology, 208 systems, 41.6 percent of the list, up 37 percent from June 2009. Ethernet connected systems declined by 14 percent in the same period of time.
• Mellanox InfiniBand provides the highest system utilization on the TOP500, up to 96 percent system utilization, and connects the Top5 most efficient systems.
• Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand is the only 40Gb/s proven technology on the list, and enables the high system utilization in the TOP500.
• Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand is the only 40Gb/s scalable technology on the list, connecting two out the world’s three sustained Petaflop performance supercomputers.
• InfiniBand connects nearly 4x the number of Cray-based system and approximately 6x more the number of Blue Gene-based systems in the Top100  systems
• InfiniBand connects the world’s most powerful supercomputers in the Top10 and Top20
• InfiniBand is the most used interconnect in the Top100, Top200 and Top300: 64 percent of the Top100, 56 percent of the Top200, 47 of the Top300.
• Clusters continue to be the dominant system architecture with 84.8 percent of the TOP500 list.
• Mellanox end-to-end 40Gb/s scalable HPC solution accelerates NVIDIA GPU-based systems with the new NVIDIA GPUDirect technology that enables faster GPU communications.
• Mellanox InfiniBand interconnect products present in the TOP500 are used by a diverse list of applications, from large-scale, high-performance computing to commercial technical computing and enterprise data centers.

China Top 100

Overview

The China TOP100 lists the fastest computers in china ranked according to Linpack benchmark results. Published annually, the TOP100 list provides an important tool for tracking usage trends in high-performance computing in China.

2009 Highlights

Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand adapters and switch solutions enable the fastest supercomputer in the China Top100, National University of Defense Technology’s (NUDT) “TianHe” – the first Petascale system in Asia. Furthermore, Mellanox InfiniBand solutions provide the highest system efficiency and utilization as reported in the China Top100 2009 list. Mellanox InfiniBand demonstrates up to 92 percent system utilization, allowing users to maximize their return on investment for their high-performance computing server and storage infrastructure. This year’s Top100 list reveals that InfiniBand is the only industry-standard interconnect solution showing growth; up 192 percent, with 38 systems, compared to the previous 2008 list. Mellanox ConnectX® InfiniBand adapters and switch systems based on its InfiniScale® III and IV switch silicon provide the scalable, low-latency and power-efficient interconnect for China’s fastest supercomputer systems. Mellanox end-to-end 40Gb/s InfiniBand solutions deliver the highest 40Gb/s based system efficiency on the list, which is being used by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA) for atmospheric and weather forecasting and simulations.

Highlights of InfiniBand usage on the October 2009 TOP100 list include:

• Mellanox InfiniBand connects the fastest supercomputer in China, the first systems to provide Petascale capability in Asia
• Mellanox InfiniBand interconnect products connect 38 of the world’s fastest supercomputers in China, including 5 of the top 10 most prestigious positions (#1, #2, #3, #7, and #8)
• Mellanox InfiniBand provides the highest system utilization, up to 92 percent efficiency as measured by the Linpack benchmark
• All InfiniBand-based clusters use Mellanox solutions
• InfiniBand is the only growing industry-standard clustered interconnect in the China Top100 with a growth rate of 192 percent from 2008 to 2009, while Ethernet demonstrated a 20% decline in number of systems, and proprietary interconnect a 60% decline. None of the systems included 10GigE for server connectivity
• Mellanox InfiniBand interconnect products present in the Top100 are used by a diverse list of applications, from large-scale, high-performance computing to commercial technical computing and enterprise data centers

Russia Top 50

Overview

The Russia TOP50 lists the fastest computers in Russia ranked according to Linpack benchmark results. Published annually, the TOP50 list provides an important tool for tracking usage trends in high-performance computing in Russia.

2009 Highlights

Mellanox 40Gb/s InfiniBand adapter cards and switch systems enable the fastest supercomputer on the Russian Top50 Supercomputer list with peak performance of 414 teraflops, and is the most used interconnect solution, connecting 37 systems, including the top three systems and seven of the Top10. According to the Linpack benchmark, Mellanox InfiniBand’s high system efficiency and utilization allow users to maximize their return-on-investment for their high-performance computing server and storage infrastructure by demonstrating up to 92 percent efficiency. Nearly three quarters of the list, represented by leading research laboratories, universities, industrial companies and banks in Russia, rely on Mellanox’s industry-leading InfiniBand solutions to provide the highest in bandwidth, efficiency, scalability, and application performance.

Highlights of InfiniBand usage on the April 2009 TOP50 list include:

• Mellanox InfiniBand connects 74 percent of the Top50 list, including seven of the Top10 most prestigious positions (#1, #2, #3, #6, #8, #9 and #10)
• Mellanox InfiniBand provides world-leading system utilization, up to 92 percent efficiency as measured by the Linpack benchmark
• The list showed a sharp increase in the aggregated performance - the total peak performance of the list exceeded 1PFlops to reach 1152.9TFlops, an increase of 120 percent compared to the September 2009 list - highlighting the  increasing demand for higher performance
• Ethernet connects only 14 percent of the list (seven systems); and there were no 10GigE clusters
• Proprietary clustering interconnects declined 40 percent to connect only three systems on the list