The Research Computing Centre of the Lomonosov Moscow State University and the Joint Supercomputer Centre of the Russian academy of science announce the release of the 8th edition of the Top 50 list of the most powerful computers in Russia and CIS (former Soviet Union countries). The new list can be found at its Web site. The 8th edition of the list shows a skyrocketing increase of performance of the most powerful computers in Russia and CIS. Total Linpack performance has increased from 61.6 TFlops to 197.3 TFlops (by 220.3%) within half a year - an unparalleled increase for the entire life of the list. New systems, including those upgraded over the last half a year, comprise 56% of the list (28 out of 50 installations). The most significant changes as compared to the previous edition affected the top section of the list. The top five of the most powerful supercomputers in CIS are all completely new. As a result, total Linpack performance of Top5 has increased from 31.2TFlops up to 117.1 TFlops (by 275.4%). The top position of the list is occupied by the SKIF MSU supercomputer delivered by T-Platforms for the Lomonosov Moscow State University within the frames of the SKIF-GRID supercomputer program of Russia & Belarus. The Linpack performance of this computer deployed in the MSU Research Computing Centre is 47.14 TFlops (78.5% of peak performance). The second position of the new list edition is taken by the MBC-100K supercomputer delivered by HP with Linpack performance of 33.9 TFlops. The 3rd and 5th positions are occupied by two IBM systems deployed in the Ufa State Aviation Technical University and the Siberian Federal University with Linpack performance of 14.6 TFlops and 9.3 TFlops respectively. The 4th position goes to SKIF Ural supercomputer by T-Platforms deployed in the South-Ural State University with Linpack performance of 12.2 TFlops. The 6th position of the list is taken by the leader of two previous editions of Top50 - the T-Platforms SKIF Cyberia supercomputer for Tomsk State University with Linpack performance of 9 TFlops. Only two systems from the previous edition remained in the top ten - it is the most significant change during the whole history of the Top50 list. The number of computers with real performance over 1 TFlops in CIS has actually doubled from 13 to 25, and the entry level to top ten moved from 1.3 TFlops to 5.2 TFlops (by 300%). The entry level to the entire Top50 is now 432 GFlops on the Lipack benchmark as compared to 253.6 GFlops half a year ago. The number of systems in academic segment increased from 38% to 58%, while the share of HPC systems used for applied research stayed on the same level of 28% as compared to the previous edition. At the same time, the share of powerful computers in the industrial and financial segments decreased from 16% to 10% and from 18% to 4% respectively. Most of Top50 computers are based on Intel processors (38 systems as compared to 31 half a year ago). The list also includes 6 AMD processor-based systems (9 in the previous edition), 5 IBM processor-based systems (unchanged from the previous edition) and 1 HP processor-based system (5 in September). The number of computers based on Gigabit Ethernet interconnect significantly decreased - from 20 to 9 during six months. High-speed communication technologies are used more widely: InfiniBand (up from 20 to 31 systems) and Myrinet (up from 6 to 8 systems). SCI and HyperPlex communication technologies are used in 1 system each. T-Platforms improves its leading positions among Top50 system vendors with an increase of its share from 30% to 46% (including SKIF supercomputers developed and delivered by the company). The share of systems sold by Hewlett-Packard and IBM slightly decreased from 26% to 20% and from 22% to 14% respectively. Top50 List Brief Top50 list of the most powerful computers in Russia and other CIS countries was launched in May 2004 by the Joint Supercomputer Center of RAS and Research Computing Center of the Lomonosov Moscow State University. The Top50 list includes data about 50 most powerful computer systems deployed in the CIS countries. Systems are ranged by Linpack performance benchmark according to international standards. The Top50 list is updated twice a year and helps to effectively track supercomputer industry development trends in Russia and CIS. The rating can be viewed at its Web site. T-Platforms is the general sponsor of the project. Other Top50 list sponsors are AMD, IBM, Intel and Microsoft corporations. The informational sponsor of the project is an information & analysys centre for parallel computing at its Web site.