Trailblazing with Roadrunner

by Paul Henning and Andrew B. White Jr.

In June 2008, a new supercomputer broke the petaflop/s performance barrier, more than doubling the computational performance of the next fastest machine on the Top500 Supercomputer list. This computer, named Roadrunner, is the result of an intensive collaboration between IBM and Los Alamos National Laboratory, where it’s now located. Aside from its performance, Roadrunner has two distinguishing characteristics: a very good power/performance ratio and a “hybrid” computer architecture that mixes several types of processors. By November 2008, the traditionally architected Jaguar computer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory was tied with Roadrunner in the performance race, but it requires almost 2.8 times the electric power of Roadrunner. This difference translates into millions of dollars per year in operating costs.

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