ENGINEERING

Three Dell supercomputing clusters have been recognized as among the world's fastest 50 supercomputers, according to the TOP500 list. The TOP500 list has emerged as the de facto source for determining the world's fastest supercomputers based on a benchmark that measures a system's sustained performance. The number of Dell entries on the list has increased to 21, reflecting the growing trend toward standards-based systems configured in high-performance computing clusters (HPCC) to address sophisticated computing needs in academia, laboratories and commercial organizations. At No. 20, a Dell cluster at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) holds the highest ranking of Dell's entries on the TOP500 list. The NCSA cluster, which has ranked as the fastest Intel Xeon-based cluster since November 2003, has a theoretical peak performance of 15.3 trillion floating point operations per second (Tflops). A second Dell cluster at NCSA ranks 47th with a theoretical peak performance of 8.8 Tflops. Dell also powers the fastest supercomputers in Canada and Sweden, based on the TOP500 rankings. The Universite de Sherbrooke cluster ranks 40th overall with a theoretical peak performance of 8.3 Tflops. It is being used for scientific research in areas such as astrophysics, computational chemistry, bio-engineering, fluid dynamics, data mining, high-temperature superconductivity, nanoelectronics, pharmaceutical development, and weather and climate forecasting. Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology cluster garnered No. 65 on the list with a theoretical peak performance of 5.67 Tflops. "Dell's ongoing efforts to deliver on our vision of the scalable enterprise and simplify all aspects of advanced computing with standardized systems, software and services are reflected in our increased presence in the TOP500," said Reza Rooholamini, PhD., director, Enterprise Solutions Engineering, Dell. "With the significant increase in the number of clusters on the TOP500 list, the supercomputing community is sending a clear message that standards-based clusters can meet their performance needs as well as or better than expensive mainframe computers running proprietary technology." Intel-based clusters represent a growing number of placements on the TOP500 list. Of the more than 300 cluster systems ranked on the TOP500, 89 percent feature Intel-based architecture. According to IDC, Dell ranked number one in units for the Intel-cluster space in Q1 2005. Dell also leads in the Departmental Cluster segment with 46 percent unit share worldwide. Dell's 21 TOP500 entries have a cumulative theoretical performance of 107.7 Tflops, more than 70 percent greater than the 63.3 Tflops powered by Dell's entries in the previous list. Additional Dell placements on the TOP500 list include; Brigham Young University (53), University of Oklahoma (54), Caltech/JPL (71), Texas Advanced Computing Center/University of Texas (74), University of Sherbrooke (114), University of Tennessee SimCenter at Chattanooga (129), Stichting Academisch Rekencentrum (140), Sandia National Labs (146), University of Buffalo, State University of New York, (200), Sandia National Labs (325), Cornell Theory Center (326), University of Arkansas (379), The University of Florida (394), Pennsylvania State University (395), Texas Advanced Computing Center/University of Texas (427), University Bonn (428), and University of Liverpool (449).