The Columbia system is based on Mountain View, California-based SGI’s Altix Linux server and achieved sustained performance of 42.7 trillions of calculations per second (teraflops) based on the Linpack benchmark, as well as an 88% efficiency rating.
The Columbia result was achieved using only 16 of Columbia’s 20 Altix systems, or 8.192 of the total 10,240 processors, and puts it well ahead of the world’s previous fastest supercomputer, NEC Corp’s Earth Simulator, which has a sustained performance of 35.86 teraflops.
While the Linpack performance record is an important proof of Columbia’s ability, Nasa’s Ames Research Center, where the system is based, is understandably more interested in the practical benefits it can get from the supercomputer. The space agency is hoping the system will enable it to predict hurricane paths five days before storms reach land, rather than the current two days.
Nasa is also expecting Columbia to enable it to reduce the time required to perform complex aircraft design analysis from years to a single day. Other uses include climate study, wind tunnel simulations, space exploration research, and galaxy formation and supernova analysis.
The space agency is already using Columbia for practical use after the system was installed in less than 120 days, building on Nasa’s existing Kalpana Altix system, which helped SGI to stretch a single Linux system image across 512 processors.
As well as SGI’s Altix servers, Columbia makes use of SGI’s InfiniteStorage products to allow access to 440 terabytes of data. Also used in the Columbia installation are storage technology from Brocade Communications Inc and Engenio Information Technologies Inc, memory technology from Dataram Corp and Micron Technology Inc, and interconnect technology from Voltaire Inc.