TOP500

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 40th TOP500 List was released during the SC'12 conference.

TOP500 40th List Highlights

InfiniBand further grew as the top interconnect of choice for the TOP500 with 224 clusters. From June 2012 to November 2012, the number of FDR 56Gb/s InfiniBand systems increased by nearly 2.3X, including the top two ranked InfiniBand systems on the list, showing the increasing demand for higher performance, scalability and efficiency.

The new list showcased the expansion of InfiniBand connecting cloud infrastructures. InfiniBand enables the most efficient cloud infrastructure on the list, more than 30 percent higher efficiency than other cloud solutions listed. Furthermore, Mellanox ConnectX InfiniBand adapters and switch systems optimize server and storage performance and provide the scalable, low-latency, and power-efficient interconnect for the world's fastest supercomputers, connecting 43 percent (10 systems) of all PetaScale based systems (23 systems).

The advanced offloads and accelerations within Mellanox InfiniBand solutions enable the most performance efficient system on the TOP500 list, at nearly 96 percent system and CPU efficiency.

Highlights of InfiniBand and Mellanox usage on the November 2012 TOP500 list include:

  • InfiniBand is the most used interconnect on the list, connecting 224 systems, 20 percent more than the 189 Ethernet connected systems.
  • Mellanox InfiniBand provides the highest system utilization on the TOP500, up to 96 percent system utilization.
  • InfiniBand is the most used interconnect in the TOP500: 52 percent of the TOP100, 53 percent of the TOP200, 50 percent of the TOP300, 46 percent of the TOP400 and 45 percent of the TOP500.
  • FDR InfiniBand is the fastest growing interconnect technology on the TOP500 with a 2.3X increase in number of systems versus the June 2012 TOP500 list.
  • InfiniBand connects 43 percent of the world's most powerful Petaflop systems on the list.
  • InfiniBand connects 7.5X the number of Cray-based systems in the TOP500 systems and 3X the number of Cray-based systems in the TOP100 systems.
  • Clusters continue to be the dominant system architecture with 82 percent of the TOP500 list.
  • Mellanox end-to-end InfiniBand scalable HPC solutions accelerate 86 percent of the accelerator-based systems.
  • Mellanox InfiniBand interconnect solutions 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.

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