TOP500 Report’s Vendor Trends Highlight Processor Use

In the TOP500‘s latest rankings list, a total of 471 systems, representing 94.2% of the total, are now using Intel processors, which is slightly up from 92.8% six months ago. The share of IBM Power processors is at 14 systems, down from 21 systems in June.

The number of systems using Gigabit Ethernet is unchanged at 228 systems.  InfiniBand technology is found in 163 systems, down from 178 systems in the previous list, and remains the second most-used system interconnect technology in the list. Intel Omni-Path technology is now in 35 systems, down from 38 six months ago.

HPE has the lead in the number of installed supercomputers at 122, which represents nearly a quarter of all TOP500 systems.

Lenovo follows HPE with 81 systems down from 88 systems on the June list.  Inspur rose further in the ranks and has now 56 systems, up from only 20 six months ago. Cray now has 53 systems, down from 57 systems six months ago. Sugon features 51 systems in the list, up from 44 in June.  IBM follows with only 19 systems remaining under their label. These are mostly BlueGene/Q supercomputers, reflecting an aging install base. The average age of IBM systems on the list is now five years.

For performance, Cray claims 19.5% of the list’s aggregate performance. HPE is second with 15.2% of the TOP500 flops. Thanks to the No. 1 Sunway TaihuLight system, NRCPC retains the third spot with 11.1% percent of the total performance. Lenovo is fourth with 9.1% of performance, followed by Inspur at 6.3%, IBM at 6.1% and Sugon at 5.2%. All top vendors, with the exception of Inspur and Sugon, lost performance share compared to six months ago.

For more info, visit TOP500.

Sources: Press materials received from the company.