Cerrillos and Roadrunner rank in the top10 of world's most energy-efficient supercomputers

Majority of top 25 systems based on NNSA, DOE technology

NNSA Administrator Thomas D’Agostino congratulated the Advanced Simulation and Computing program for two supercomputers ranked in the TOP Green500’s top 10 most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world as of November 2009.

The two computers in the top 10 are housed at LANL: Cerrillos (#4) and Roadrunner (#9). Six other supercomputers housed at NNSA sites were also ranked in the TOP Green500 list.

Additionally, three of the top six supercomputers on the list are based on NNSA’s Roadrunner system.  Fifteen of the top 23 supercomputers on the list are based on NNSA and Department of Energy’s Office of Science co-investments in Blue Gene/P technology.

“I am proud of the work done by our supercomputer engineers and scientists. I applaud our enterprise-wide commitment to being effective stewards of taxpayer dollars while promoting energy awareness," said D’Agostino.

Cutting-edge and energy-efficient
The purpose of the Green500 is to provide a ranking of the most energy-efficient supercomputers in the world. For decades, the notion of performance has been synonymous with speed. This particular focus has led to the emergence of supercomputers that consume large amounts of electrical power and produce heat that requires extravagant cooling facilities to ensure proper operation. The Green500 list encourages supercomputing stakeholders to create systems that are both cutting-edge and energy efficient.

Roadrunner currently runs open science and engineering simulations including a simulation aiding HIV vaccine design. Cerrillos is a Roadrunner-like system with 162TF which recently has been installed at LANL to allow unclassified research.

Three of top 10 claimed
Last week NNSA congratulated its national laboratories and supercomputing program for earning three of the top 10 spots on the latest TOP500 supercomputer list. The top 10 included Roadrunner (#2, Los Alamos National Laboratory); BlueGene/L (#7, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, pictured below); and Red Sky (#10, Sandia National Laboratories/National Renewable Energy Laboratory). In addition, the Dawn platform at Livermore was ranked as the 11th fastest in the world. A total of eight supercomputers housed at NNSA labs made the TOP500 list.