PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 22, 2016
Dublin, Ireland – The sixth Irish SUPERCOMPUTER list, ranking the fastest high performance computers in Ireland was released today.
The new list represents a dramatic shake-up of the Irish High Performance Computing (HPC) landscape, with aggregate Irish HPC power exceeding 1 Petaflop/s for the first time. There are six new machines at positions 1, 2, 3, 8, 20 and 28. All top three machines are Top500-class, currently featuring at positions 357, 453, and 454 on the 47th Top500 list, representing the 500 fastest supercomputers on Earth. These three machines combined have a performance of 981 TFlop/s, nearly 1.5 times the combined power of all 28 machines on the December 2015 list. The result is a more than doubling of Ireland’s total HPC output. Combined, all machines on the Irish Supercomputer List now have a total processing power of 1.42PFlop/s (Petaflops). With 6 new machines, 6 decommissions, and 2 upgrades, the June 2016 list experienced a turnover of over half of the December 2015 list. Additionally, Ireland is now ranked #2 in the world in terms of number of Top500 supercomputers per capita, and #11 in the world in terms of supercomputing capacity (Rmax) per capita.
Irish Supercomputing List maintainer Dr. Brett Becker of the University College Dublin School of Computer Science said:
“The June 2016 Irish Supercomputer List represents a seismic shake-up in the Irish HPC landscape. After a 2015 that saw only three new machines, the list has experienced a turnover of over 50% with three new Top500-class machines topping the list. High Performance Computing is alive and well in Ireland, with a combined national HPC output of over 1 Petaflop. On the global stage, Ireland is now at the envious position of being #2 in the world in terms of Top500 supercomputers per capita.”
This list represents several firsts:
- First time Irish aggregate HPC power exceeds 1 Petaflops
- First time in two years that Ireland has featured on the Top500 list
- First time Ireland has had three machines on the Top500 list since June 2012
- First time the list has had a turnover of over 50%
- First time that aggregate supercomputing power has more than doubled in one list iteration
The Irish Supercomputer List is maintained by an independent group of computer science researchers representing industry and academia, including members at University College Dublin, Maynooth University and Queen’s University Belfast. Providing an international perspective are representatives at the University of Oxford and Durham University, along with industry representatives from Ireland, the UK and the USA.
The Irish Supercomputer List was launched in November 2013 to raise the profile of High Performance Computing (HPC) in Ireland and abroad. The list, at www.IrishSupercomputerList.org, is updated twice annually (typically June/July and November/December) and there is a continuous open call for participation from users and maintainers of Irish HPC installations.
The June 2016 Irish Supercomputer List is available at www.IrishSupercomputerList.org.
ENDS