SGI hopes by 2018 to build supercomputers 500 times faster than the most powerful today, using specially designed accelerator chips made by Intel. SGI hopes to bring a massive performance boost to its supercomputers through highly parallel processors based on Intel's MIC (many integrated cores) architecture.
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Member since:2007-07-27
Yes, these HPC super computers mostly runs Linux. These super computers is basically a cluster on a fast switch. It is similar to Googles network; Google have 10.000 PCs on a network. Just add a node and start up Linux, and you have increased the performance of the network. Linux scales well horizontally (on large networks with 1000s of PCs). For instance, SGI has a ALTIX server with as many as 1024 cores, it is a bunch of blades in a rack with a fast switch.
The opposite is a single large SMP server, weighing 1,000kg or so. They are built totally different. For instance, IBM's has released their new and might P795 Unix server, it has as many as 32 POWER7 cpus. IBM's largest Mainframe has as many as 24 Mainframe z196 cpus. Oracle has a Solaris server M9000 with as many as 64 cpus. Some years ago, Sun sold a Solaris server with as many as 144 cpus. This is vertical scaling, it is not a network with a bunch of blade PCs.
Linux scales bad vertically. Linux has problems going over 32 cores. 48 cores is not handled well by Linux. This can be seen in for instance, SAP benchmarks on 48 cores. Where Linux used faster AMD cpus, and faster DRAM than the Solaris server. Linux achieved only 87% cpu utilization whereas Solaris achieved 99%, and that is the reason Solaris was faster even though it used slower hardware. To scale well vertically, you need a mature Enterprise Unix. Linux can not do it, it takes decades of experience and tuning. Until recently, Linux had Big Kernel Lock!
Ted Tso, ext4 creator, just recently explained that until now, 32 cores was considered exotic and expensive hardware to Linux developers but now that is changing and that is the reason Ted is now working on to scale up to as many as 32 cores. But Solaris/AIX/HP-UX/etc Kernel devs have for decades had access to large servers with many cpus. Linux devs just recently has got access to 32 cores. Not 32 cpus, but 32 cores. After a decade(?), Linux might handle 32 cpus too.
Member since:2009-05-19
Member since:2010-07-07
So, the Xbox One disaster continues. Microsoft's policy for dealing with the used games market has reportedly leaked - and it's a clear and direct attack to destroy the used games market. Prices for used games will be set at the retail value of a new game, and retailers have to hook into Microsoft's computer systems and comply with Microsoft's terms and conditions.At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
The day has finally come! Jolla has finally announced the launch device for its Sailfish operating system - and by god this is a looker. It's decidedly different from other phones out there, but it has good specifications and carries a relatively reasonably price tag - EUR 399, and it's up for pre-order today, shipping in the fourth quarter of this year.
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
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2008-10-22
Currently they only have four systems in the top fifty super computers -- and their highest is number seven; http://www.top500.org/list/2011/06/100. I'll be curious to see how well they compete with the other architectures. Interestingly, the new number one is based on SPARC64 but it runs Linux.