Petascale computing refers to computing systems capable of calculating at least 10¹⁵

floating point operations per second In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

(1 petaFLOPS). Petascale computing allowed faster processing of traditional supercomputer applications. The first system to reach this milestone was the

IBM Roadrunner Roadrunner was a supercomputer built by IBM for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA. The US$100-million Roadrunner was designed for a peak performance of 1.7 petaflops. It achieved 1.026 petaflops on May 25, 2008, to become t ...

in 2008. Petascale supercomputers are planned to be succeeded by

exascale computers Exascale computing refers to computing systems capable of calculating at least "1018 IEEE 754 Double Precision (64-bit) operations (multiplications and/or additions) per second ( exa FLOPS)"; it is a measure of supercomputer performance. Exasca ...

Definition

Floating point operations per second In computing, floating point operations per second (FLOPS, flops or flop/s) is a measure of computer performance, useful in fields of scientific computations that require floating-point calculations. For such cases, it is a more accurate meas ...

(FLOPS) are one measure of

computer performance In computing, computer performance is the amount of useful work accomplished by a computer system. Outside of specific contexts, computer performance is estimated in terms of accuracy, efficiency and speed of executing computer program instructio ...

. FLOPS can be recorded in different measures of precision, however the standard measure (used by the

TOP500 The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non- distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year. The first of these updates always coinci ...

supercomputer list) uses 64 bit ( double-precision floating-point format) operations per second using the High Performance LINPACK (HPLinpack)

benchmark Benchmark may refer to: Business and economics * Benchmarking, evaluating performance within organizations * Benchmark price * Benchmark (crude oil), oil-specific practices Science and technology * Benchmark (surveying), a point of known elevati ...

. The metric typically refers to single computing systems, although can be used to measure distributed computing systems for comparison. It can be noted that there are alternative precision measures using the LINPACK benchmarks which are not part of the standard metric/definition. It has been recognised that HPLinpack may not be a good general measure of supercomputer utility in real world application, however it is the common standard for performance measurement.

History

The petaFLOPS barrier was first broken on 16 September 2007 by the

distributed computing A distributed system is a system whose components are located on different networked computers, which communicate and coordinate their actions by passing messages to one another from any system. Distributed computing is a field of computer sci ...

Folding@home Folding@home (FAH or F@h) is a volunteer computing project aimed to help scientists develop new therapeutics for a variety of diseases by the means of simulating protein dynamics. This includes the process of protein folding and the movements ...

project. The first single petascale system, the

Roadrunner The roadrunners (genus ''Geococcyx''), also known as chaparral birds or chaparral cocks, are two species of fast-running ground cuckoos with long tails and crests. They are found in the southwestern and south-central United States and Mexico, us ...

, entered operation in 2008. The

, built by IBM, had a sustained performance of 1.026 petaFLOPS. The Jaguar became the second computer to break the petaFLOPS milestone, later in 2008, and reached a performance of 1.759 petaFLOPS after a 2009 update. By 2018, Summit had become the world's most powerful supercomputer, at 200 petaFLOPS before Fugaku reached 415 petaFLOPS in June 2020.

References

{{reflist, refs= {{cite web , title=FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS , url=https://www.top500.org/resources/frequently-asked-questions/ , website=www.top500.org , accessdate=23 June 2020 {{cite book , editor1-last=Kogge , editor1-first=Peter , title=ExaScale Computing Study: Technology Challenges in Achieving Exascale Systems , date=1 May 2008 , publisher=United States Government , url=https://sites.astro.caltech.edu/~george/aybi199/ExascaleReport.pdf , access-date=28 September 2008

External links

Petascale computers: the next supercomputing waveNational Science Board Approves Funds for Petascale Computing SystemsMassive $208 million petascale computer gets green light
Supercomputing

Definition

History

See also

References

External links