IBM Builds 10 PFlops Supercomputer

IBM will be building a 750,000 core supercomputer for the DOE’s Argonne National Library. 

Zoom Called Mira, the system is expected to deliver a maximum performance of about 10 PFlop/s which is about twice as fast as today’s fastest supercomputer on the Top 500 list.

The new system will be built on IBM’s BlueGene/Q technology and be capable of running about 10 quadrillion calculations per second, which is about 20 times the performance of Argonne’s current Intrepid supercomputer. According to IBM, Mire will be able to do about the same number of calculations every second as every man, woman and child in the U.S. could do in one year if they were to do one calculation each second.

There was no information when Mira will be completed and there was no information how much this system will cost. However, IBM said that the supercomputer is a stepping stone on the path to an exascale supercomputer, which is expected to arrive in the 2020 time frame and will be at least 100 times faster than Mira. IBM said that such systems may be powered by “100s of millions of cores”.