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LANL has always been an early adopter of transformational high performance computing (HPC) technology.  For example, in the 1970s when HPC was scalar; LANL acquired the first Cray-1 vector supercomputer.  When HPC was vector; LANL acquired the first TMC CM-5 massively parallel supercomputer; the first #1 on the TOP500 list.  In the 2000s, HPC was distributed memory; LANL and IBM built Roadrunner, the first hybrid supercomputer and the first supercomputer to attain a sustained petaflop/second.

First Science at Petascale, Results from the Roadrunner Supercomputer

Roadrunner Tracks

All articles in the IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 53, Number 5, 2009, are on hybrid computing systems, focusing on Roadrunner. Paper 8, The reverse-acceleration model for programing petascale hybrid systems, is authored by LANL CCS-1 staff Scott Pakin, Mike Lang, and Darren Kerbyson.

Open Science Press Releases in LANLtoday News

• "Trailblazing with Roadrunner," by Paul Henning and Andrew White, in Computing in Science & Engineering, July/August 2009, pp. 91-95.
• The 34th edition of the list of the world’s TOP500 supercomputers was released on November 16, 2009, with Roadrunner system now the second fastest computer.
• For a comprehensive description of the unique Cell (microprocessor) used in Roadrunner, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_(microprocessor) .

Roadrunner background

• Green500 ranks the world's top supercomputers by energy efficiency. On the November 2008 Green500 release, Roadrunner is #7. Roadrunner is cited for "extraordinary energy efficiency... For comparison, the last two supercomputers to top the TOP500 are #43 and #499 on the Green500." (July 1, 2008)
• Roadrunner installation at Los Alamos National Laboratory video (mp4)
• (former) NM US Senator Domenici, press release on Roadrunner, July 31, 2008 (S.R. 637)
• Roadrunner supercomputer puts research at new scale (LANL Roadrunner press release: scientists successfully testing human vision simulation codes, at petascale, on Roadrunner, June 16, 2008)
• ..Fastest in the World (NNSA Roadrunner press release, June 9, 2008)
• Roadrunner supercomputer fastest in world (LANL Roadrunner press release: initial announcement with links to a brief movie, statements by NM US Senator Pete Domenici and US Representative Tom Udall, June 9, 2008)
• Roadrunner Smashes Petaflops Barrier (IBM Roadrunner press release, Armonk, NY, June 9, 2008)
• Roadrunner-Computing in the Fast Lane (1663, Los Alamos Science and Technology Magazine, May 2008)

In a test run on May 27, 2008, the Roadrunner supercomputer, built by IBM with funding from the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) for Los Alamos National Laboratory, achieved a long-sought supercomputing goal: performing more than a thousand trillion operations per second, or petaflop/s.

A “flops” is an acronym meaning floating-point operations per second.  One petaflop/s is 1,000 trillion operations per second.  To put this into perspective, if each of the 6 billion people on earth had a hand calculator and worked together on a calculation 24 hours per day, 365 days a year, it would take 46 years to do what Roadrunner would do in one day.

Roadrunner is the first supercomputer to use a hybrid processor architecture, which is based on both Opteron X64 processors from Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and the IBM Cell Broadband Engine™ (Cell BE) processing elements.

Roadrunner will be housed at NNSA’s Los Alamos National Laboratory. The laboratory worked collaboratively with IBM, the manufacturer, for six years to deliver a novel computer architecture that can meet the nation’s evolving national security needs.  The result has redefined the frontier of supercomputing, not only by crossing the one petaflop threshold, but also by introducing a new paradigm for the future.