The Green500 List - November 2012
Heterogeneous Systems Re-Claim Green500 List Dominance
SALT LAKE CITY, UT - November 14, 2012 - The latest Green500 List was released today (http://www.green500.org/lists/green201211) and the top spots on the list have been taken over by machines that combine commodity processors with coprocessors or graphics processing units (GPUs) to form heterogeneous high-performance computing systems.
With all eyes on the new TOP500 number one system, Oak Ridge National Labs' Titan, it was a system belonging to a neighbor at the University of Tennessee that debuted at the top of the November Green500 List. The National Institute for Computational Sciences' Beacon system has set the new energy efficiency bar at nearly two-and-a-half billion floating-point operations per second (gigaflops) per watt. Employing Intel's Sandy Bridge series of Xeon central processing units (CPUs) and four of Intel's Xeon Phi coprocessors per node Beacon achieved a peak 112,200 gigaflops of performance running the LINPACK benchmark while consuming only 44.89 kW of power.
The Intel Xeon Phi--"Knights Corner"-- is a 22nm multicore coprocessor featuring the world's first 3D Tri-Gate transistors. Like its GPU counterparts, the Intel Xeon Phi resides on a PCI Express board that plugs into a machine's expansion slots.
Rounding out the top five systems are three other machines using GPU accelerators combined with traditional AMD or Intel CPUs. "Metaphorically, think of CPU-GPU systems operating like the human brain, where the CPU could be viewed as the left brain and the GPU as the right brain," says Dr. Wu Feng, founder of the Green500 List. "Each side of the brain is suited to process different types of tasks." In second place is the SANAM system from the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology, an Intel CPU system that uses AMD's new FirePro S10000 GPU accelerators, and in third and fourth are the Titan and Todi systems by Cray that employ AMD Opteron CPUs and nVIDIA Tesla K20 GPU accelerators. In number five is the previous Green500 List number one system, IBM's Blue Gene/Q that uses PowerPC BQC CPUs. All of these systems are over two gigaflops per watt.
Overall, the performance of machines in the Green500 List has increased at a higher rate compared to power consumption. "That's why the machines' efficiencies are going up," says Feng. "We are more performance for the same amount of power." For machines based on commodity components--machines built with off-the-shelf components-- coprocessors and GPUs are attributing a great deal to the efficiency gains. So much so that they are keeping pace and in the latest list even outpacing purpose built systems like IBM's Blue Gene/Q. "Power consumption is still going up," says Wu, and that is still a concern.
The Green500 List has provided a ranking of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world since November 2007. For decades, the notion of "performance" has been synonymous with "speed" as measured in FLOPS. This particular focus has led to the emergence of supercomputers that consume egregious amounts of electrical power and produce so much heat that extravagant cooling facilities must be constructed to ensure proper operation. In addition, the emphasis on speed as the ultimate metric has caused other metrics such as reliability, availability, and usability to be largely ignored. As a result, there has been an extraordinary increase in the total cost of ownership (TCO) of a supercomputer.
The Green500 List
Listed below are the November 2012 The Green500's energy-efficient supercomputers ranked from 401 to 500.
Green500 Rank | MFLOPS/W | Site* | Computer* | Total Power (kW) |
401 | 115.17 | Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba | T2K Open Supercomputer - Appro Xtreme-X3 Server - Quad Opteron Quad Core 2.3 GHz, Infiniband | 671.00 |
402 | 114.53 | Geoscience (P) | Cluster Platform SL390s G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Gigabit Ethernet, NVIDIA 2090 | 4,032.00 |
403 | 113.95 | DOE/National Energy Technology Laboratory | HPCEE - SGI Rackable C2112-4RP3, Xeon E5-2670 8C 2.600GHz, Infiniband QDR | 3,628.80 |
404 | 111.20 | Kurchatov Institute Moscow | Cluster Platform 3000 BL 2x220, Xeon E5450 4C 3.000GHz, Infiniband QDR | 910.18 |
405 | 109.71 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Infiniband QDR | 709.65 |
406 | 108.89 | Los Alamos National Laboratory | Typhoon - Appro Xtreme Opteron 2 GHz, Infiniband QDR | 762.69 |
407 | 108.76 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Infiniband QDR | 874.80 |
408 | 108.43 | JAXA | Fujitsu FX1, Quadcore SPARC64 VII 2.52 GHz, Infiniband DDR | 1,020.00 |
409 | 108.14 | Columbia University | Cluster Platform SL230s/SL250s, Xeon E5-2630 6C 2.300GHz, 10G Ethernet, NVIDIA 2090 | 864.00 |
410 | 105.83 | Logistic Services (C) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL490c G7, Xeon X5670 6C 2.930GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 986.51 |
411 | 105.36 | Manufacturing Company | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G6, Xeon X5570 2.93 GHz, Infiniband | 840.45 |
412 | 104.74 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL2x220, E54xx 3.0 Ghz, Infiniband | 904.53 |
413 | 100.94 | DLR - CASE | CASE Cluster - Oracle Blade Server X6275, X5670 2.93 GHz, Infiniband QDR | 786.04 |
414 | 99.80 | Sandia National Laboratories / National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Red Sky - Sun Blade x6275, Xeon X55xx 2.93 Ghz, Infiniband | 4,343.73 |
415 | 98.03 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform SL230s Gen8, Xeon E5-2650 8C 2.000GHz, 10G Ethernet | 1,216.80 |
416 | 97.90 | Cyfronet | Zeus - Cluster Platform SL390/BL2x220, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Infiniband QDR, NVIDIA 2090 | 2,393.20 |
417 | 94.37 | Logistic Services | Cluster Platform 4000 BL685c G7, Opteron 6140 8C 2.60GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 916.20 |
418 | 92.87 | Electrionic Industry | Cluster Platform 4000 BL685c, Opteron 6140 8C 2.600GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,144.80 |
419 | 92.76 | IT Provider (P) | Cluster Platform SL390s G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet, NVIDIA 2090 | 3,168.00 |
420 | 91.59 | CINECA | Power 575, p6 4.7 GHz, Infiniband | 859.00 |
421 | 90.54 | Naval Oceanographic Office - NAVO DSRC | Power 575, p6 4.7 GHz, Infiniband | 869.00 |
422 | 90.53 | Joint Supercomputer Center | MVS-100K - Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c/BL 2x220/SL390, Xeon E5450/5365/X5675 4C 3.000GHz, Infiniband DDR, NVIDIA 2090 | 1,324.80 |
423 | 90.40 | Compute Canada/WestGrid/University of British Columbia | Orcinus - Cluster Platform 3000 BL 2x220, Xeon X5650/E5450 4C 3.00 GHz, Infiniband QDR | 848.00 |
424 | 89.98 | DKRZ - Deutsches Klimarechenzentrum | Power 575, p6 4.7 GHz, Infiniband | 1,288.00 |
425 | 89.88 | Max-Planck-Gesellschaft MPI/IPP | VIP - Power 575, p6 4.7 GHz, Infiniband | 1,095.00 |
426 | 87.21 | ECMWF | Power 575, p6 4.7 GHz, Infiniband | 1,329.00 |
427 | 87.21 | ECMWF | Power 575, p6 4.7 GHz, Infiniband | 1,329.00 |
428 | 86.00 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 4000 BL685c G7, Opteron 6136 8C 2.400GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,206.00 |
429 | 85.89 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 4000 BL685c G7, Opteron 6136 8C 2.40 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,117.80 |
430 | 85.27 | Lockheed Martin | BladeCenter HS21 Cluster, Xeon QC HT 2.66 GHz, Infiniband | 906.16 |
431 | 82.98 | Financial Services (M) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5675 6C 3.060GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 953.10 |
432 | 82.72 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,011.60 |
433 | 82.72 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,011.60 |
434 | 82.72 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,011.60 |
435 | 82.70 | Logistic Services | Cluster Platform 4000 BL685c G7, Opteron 6276 16C 2.30GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,051.20 |
436 | 82.69 | Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,020.15 |
437 | 82.59 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,043.55 |
438 | 82.42 | Government | Cluster Platform 4000 BL465c, Opteron 6134 8C 2.30GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,432.80 |
439 | 82.32 | Government | Cluster Platform 3000 BL2x220, L54xx 2.5 Ghz, Infiniband | 2,182.18 |
440 | 81.99 | Geoscience (P) | Cluster Platform SL170s, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Infiniband QDR | 1,036.80 |
441 | 79.76 | Procter and Gamble | Nimbus - Appro GreenBlade 512X, Xeon E5-2670 8C 2.600GHz, Infiniband QDR | 1,036.80 |
442 | 78.76 | Computer Network Information Center, Chinese Academy of Science | DeepComp 7000, HS21/x3950 Cluster, Xeon QC HT 3 GHz/2.93 GHz, Infiniband | 1,305.24 |
443 | 73.05 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,048.50 |
444 | 73.05 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,048.50 |
445 | 73.05 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,048.50 |
446 | 72.66 | Logistic Services (E) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,150.65 |
447 | 72.29 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,252.80 |
448 | 72.25 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,251.00 |
449 | 72.25 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,251.00 |
450 | 72.25 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,251.00 |
451 | 72.25 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,251.00 |
452 | 72.25 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,251.00 |
453 | 71.95 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform 3000SL SL170s/160z, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,342.80 |
454 | 71.95 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform 3000SL SL170s/160z, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,342.80 |
455 | 71.59 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,440.00 |
456 | 71.59 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,440.00 |
457 | 71.49 | Service Provider | Cluster Platform BL460c/280c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,869.30 |
458 | 71.49 | Banking (M) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.660GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,969.20 |
459 | 71.49 | Logistic Services (E) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,878.30 |
460 | 71.49 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,800.00 |
461 | 71.49 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,800.00 |
462 | 71.49 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,623.60 |
463 | 71.49 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,623.60 |
464 | 71.24 | Arrow Enterprise Computing Solutions | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 2.66 Ghz, GigE | 1,532.70 |
465 | 70.73 | Banking (M) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,665.90 |
466 | 70.17 | Gaming Company | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5660 2.80 GHz, 10G Ethernet | 1,344.00 |
467 | 64.50 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 4000 BL685c G7, Opteron 6234 12C 2.400GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,888.20 |
468 | 63.88 | Government | Cluster Platform 3000 BL2x220, L56xx 2.26 Ghz, Infiniband | 1,526.40 |
469 | 63.50 | Retail | Cluster Platform SL170s, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,209.60 |
470 | 63.50 | Retail | Cluster Platform SL170s, Xeon X5675 6C 3.06GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,209.60 |
471 | 61.90 | Semiconductor Company (M) | Cluster Platform 4000 BL465c G7, Opteron 6176 12C 2.300GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,440.00 |
472 | 60.74 | Cerner Corp. | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon L5640 6C 2.26GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,800.00 |
473 | 59.59 | IT Service Provider (D) | Cluster Platform 4000 BL465c G7, Opteron 6176 12C 2.30GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,146.50 |
474 | 59.13 | Manufacturing Company | Cluster Platform 4000 BL465c, Opteron 6174 12C 2.200GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,340.00 |
475 | 54.71 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform SL170s, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,440.00 |
476 | 54.71 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform SL170s, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,440.00 |
477 | 54.50 | DOE/SC/Pacific Northwest National Laboratory | Chinook - Cluster Platform 4000 DL185G5, Opteron QC 2.2 GHz, Infiniband DDR | 1,781.25 |
478 | 54.01 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform SL160z, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,770.00 |
479 | 54.01 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform SL160z, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,770.00 |
480 | 53.94 | Web Company (F) | Cluster Platform SL170s, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,800.00 |
481 | 53.41 | Web Company (F) | HP DL180se, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,052.00 |
482 | 52.84 | IT Service Provider (D) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G6, Xeon E5670 2.93 GHz, GigE | 1,471.37 |
483 | 52.43 | IT Service Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5670 2.93 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,704.70 |
484 | 51.00 | Japan Agency for Marine -Earth Science and Technology | Earth Simulator - SX-9/E/1280M160 | 2,400.00 |
485 | 48.89 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,686.00 |
486 | 48.89 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,686.00 |
487 | 48.89 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,686.00 |
488 | 48.89 | Grupa Allegro | Cluster Platform 3000 BL 2x220, Xeon L5420 4C 2.50 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,898.55 |
489 | 48.38 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,121.60 |
490 | 48.38 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 4,458.00 |
491 | 48.38 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,165.20 |
492 | 48.38 | Web Content Provider | HP DL160 Cluster G6, Xeon E5645 6C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,165.20 |
493 | 47.41 | Financial Institution | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon X5650 6C 2.66 GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 1,814.95 |
494 | 43.13 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon E5620 4C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,115.45 |
495 | 43.00 | IT Services Provider | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon E5620 4C 2.400GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,524.50 |
496 | 43.00 | Web Company (C) | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon E5620 4C 2.40GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,691.90 |
497 | 42.33 | Financial Services Company (G) | Cluster Platform SL165z G7, Opteron 6172 12C 2.100GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 3,340.80 |
498 | 40.49 | Cerner Corp. | Cluster Platform 3000 BL460c G7, Xeon E5640 4C 2.670GHz, Gigabit Ethernet | 2,431.35 |
499 | 34.41 | Government | Cray XT5 QC 2.4 GHz | 4,812.42 |
500 | 33.70 | Financial Services Company (G) | Cluster Platform 3000 DL165, Opteron 2.1 GHz 12C, GigE | 2,598.00 |
* Performance data obtained from publicly available sources including TOP500