IT & Network Infrastructure : IBM Blue Gene: 10 Things to Know About the Supercomputer

IBM's Blue Gene supercomputer ranks among the company's all-time achievements. According to Green500.org, IBM supercomputers are the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world. In fact, the latest Supercomputing Green500 List announced by Green500.org shows that a prototype of IBM's next-generation Blue Gene/Q supercomputer is No. 1 on the list. The Green500 provides rankings of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world, and the organization raises awareness about power consumption, promotes alternative total-cost-of-ownership performance metrics, and works to ensure that supercomputers only simulate climate change and not create it. The latest Green500 list shows that six of the top 10 most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world are built on IBM high-performance computing technology, IBM said. The list includes supercomputers from China to Germany to the United States that are being used for a variety of applications such as astronomy, climate prediction and life sciences. IBM also holds more than half of the top 100 positions on this list, IBM said. Energy efficiency, including performance per watt for the most computationally demanding workloads, has long been a core design principle in developing IBM systems, IBM officials say. Energy-efficient supercomputers can allow IBM clients to lower power consumption and reduce expenses associated with cooling. In 2004, the IBM Blue Gene computer became the fastest supercomputer in the world, delivering unprecedented performance in a compact, low-power design. Using Linux software and embedded system-on-a-chip technology, the Blue Gene supercomputer radically reduced the size and cost of highly scalable systems, while dramatically increasing performance. Five years later, the Blue Gene project was awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation by President Barack Obama.