Linux systems now comprise more than half of world's fastest 500 computers

Linux systems now comprise more than half of world's fastest 500 computers
Monday June 21, 2004 (12:10 AM GMT)   Printer-friendly   Email Story
By: Jay Lyman
http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/04/06/21/2312237.shtml?tid=2&tid=82&tid=94

Go back more than a few years ago and Linux had zero representation among 
the world's fastest supercomputers, which relied on traditional, 
monolithic mainframe machines running Unix or other operating systems. In 
the last few years, however, the open source operating system has begun 
dominating the list, thanks to clustering and Intel hardware in the 
supercomputing market.

List co-compiler and one of the original editors of the 12-year-old Top 
500 Fastest List Erich Strohmaier told NewsForge that although there were 
no Linux systems when the list started and only a few at the most five 
years ago, Linux is now clustering its way to the top.

"The representation of Linux in the Top 500 list has increased quite a bit 
in the last few years," Strohmaier said. "The number of cluster systems 
has increased strongly in the last three to four years from a few to more 
than half the list," he added, referring to 280 cluster systems on the 
latest list, released Monday.

Japan's Earth Simulator Center remains the world's fastest supercomputer, 
according to the Top 500 list. The United States owns the second- through 
fifth-fastest computers in the world.

Strohmaier said that although list creators, who use the Linpack benchmark 
to measure performance of the world's biggest and baddest machines, do not 
break down systems by operating system, a look at the number of clusters 
is a good gauge of the number of Linux systems.

"Most run on one flavor of Linux or another," Strohmaier said. "We don't 
have precise numbers, but almost every one is running Linux."

Strohmaier also said that IBM, which took the top vendor crown from HP in 
the latest round, held three of the top five positions with high 
performance cluster systems, which are used in academic, government, and 
other supercomputing research.

Given its gains already, other operating system advancements, and the fact 
that some high-performance jobs are better suited to more traditional 
supercomputers, Strohmaier said the clustering cavalcade will eventually 
slow down.

Based on the last list of the Top 500 from the end of last year, industry 
analyst and Harvard Research Group vice president of Linux strategy Bill 
Claybrook estimated there were about 170 Linux systems in the Top 500.

As has been the case in industry, Linux is filling the slots previously 
occupied by Unix systems, such as the SuperDome systems, which have 
dropped off as Linux has risen, according to Claybrook.

In addition to cluster systems from IBM, HP, Dell, and other 
manufacturers, Linux has also been used in other systems by SGI and others 
using Itanium 2 or Xeon processors from Intel, Claybrook said.

The analyst tied the Linux gains on the Top 500 to those of Intel, which 
provided processing power for 119 systems a year ago, 189 systems six 
months ago, and a total of 287 systems in the latest list.

"That tells you right there that Linux is dominating," Claybrook said, 
referring to Itanium 2 and Xeon processors. "Most of those Intel machines 
are running Linux."

Of Intel's 287 systems on the list, 243 are clusters of some kind and 
almost all, if not all of them, are running Linux, Claybrook estimated.

"It's growing rapidly, and I think it's going to continue," Claybrook 
said, referring to the price/performance advantage of the open source 
operating system. "Eventually, I think you'll find Linux is going to 
replace everything on the Top 500 list."

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