Rambus (RMBS)

[Threejack]

IBM to build Opteron-Cell hybrid supercomputer


Courtesy ZDNet; thanks to lopdahl2000 at IV for the find.

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Snip:

IBM has won a bid to build a supercomputer called Roadrunner that will include not just conventional Opteron chips but also the Cell processor used in the Sony Playstation, CNET News.com has learned.

The supercomputer, for the Los Alamos National Laboratory, will be the world's fastest machine and is designed to sustain a performance level of a "petaflop," or 1 quadrillion calculations per second, said U.S. Senator Pete Domenici earlier this year. Bidding for the system opened in May, when a Congressional subcommittee allocated $35 million for the first phase of the project, according to Domenici, a Republican from New Mexico, where the nuclear weapons lab is located.

Now sources familiar with the machine have said that IBM has won the contract and that the National Nuclear Security Administration is expected to announce the deal in coming days. The system is expected to be built in phases, beginning in September and finishing by 2007 if the government chooses build the full petaflop system.

Full story here:

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9584_22-6112439.html

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Guessing Rambus IP is integral to the performance of Cell-based accelerator systems.

Threejack