When we talk about powerful computers, the first type of computer that comes to mind is the gaming computer . Far from being the most powerful computers in the world, it is the workstations, better known as Workstations , which currently reach this rank. Today the TOP500 list unveils the 10 most powerful computers on the market , including computers that exceed 140 petaflops of computing power. Nothing to do with the 6, 8 and even 12 teraflops of current gaming computers.
Among the most recurrent brands in this type of computers we find Lenovo, with no less than 173 supercomputers , followed by Inspur, with 71, and Sugon, with 63. You can see the complete list of the 500 most powerful computers in the world in this link.
Oak Ridge, with 148 petaflops
No, this is not a joke. Oak Ridge, named after the Tennessee National Laboratory, has the most powerful computer on the market , surpassing the 140 petaflops barrier reached by the same computer last year.
Currently the team consisting of a supercomputer designed by IBM and Summit has a floating point operating power of 148.6 petaflops supported by an IBM Power9 22C processor and an NVIDIA Volta GV100 graphics card.
It also has 2.14 million cores , and drinks no less than 10.09 kW of electrical energy.
Lawrence Livermore, with 94 petaflops
The computer whose situation is in the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California, drinks from a system very similar to the one used in the Oak Ridge laboratory , although its computing power is significantly lower than the previous one.
The difference with respect to the latter is found in the system used by IBM, which in this case uses an IBM Power System S922LC with up to 1.57 million cores . This directly affects the computer's computing power, whose figures reach 94.64 petaflops .
Also energy consumption is reduced compared to its counterpart, with only 7,438 kW .
Sunway TaihuLight, with 93 petaflops
We change the continent and also the system. The team established at the Wuxi National Superinformatics Center in China occupies the third position, with an average of 93,014 petaflops .
The team, developed by the Chinese NRCPC, has processors under the signature of Sunway of no less than 10.64 million cores . Specifically, the Sunway SW26010 260C.
The consumption of this, unlike the previous ones, exceeds 15,000 kW . Specifically 15,371 kW.
This is the appearance of a real supercomputer
Tianhe-2A, with 61 petaflops
The supercomputer installed in the Canton National Superinformatics Center in China has no less than 61.4 petaflops .
Powered by 4.9 million-core Intel Xeon and Matrix-2000 processors , the equipment has been developed by the China National University of Defense Technology.
The energy consumption of the equipment, far from being the most efficient, reaches up to 18,482 kW . The highest figure in the ranking still being one of the least long-lived supercomputers.
Border, with 23 petaflops
Installed in the Center for Advanced Computing at the University of Texas, the Frontera is one of the newest computers in the ranking of the most powerful computers in the world, with 23.5 petaflops of floating point computing power and a Dell C6420 system .
The latter, by the way, uses Intel Xeon Platinum 8280 processors , with "only" 448,448 cores.
The energy consumption of the equipment is unknown, as it is a relatively new workstation.
Piz Daint, with 21 petaflops
The sixth place in the ranking is taken by the computer system implemented at the Swiss National Superinformatics Center in Lugano, based on a Cray XC50 system.
It has Intel Xeon processors and NVIDIA P100 graphics cards , and today it is proclaimed as the most powerful system in all of Europe, with no less than 21.23 petaflops and 387,872 cores .
Its energy consumption is only 2,384 kW , making it one of the most efficient in the world.
Trinity, with 20 petaflops
With a Cray XC40 system very similar to that of the Piz Daint, the Trinity supercomputer is housed at Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratory.
It has 979,072-core Intel Xeon and Intel Xeon Phi processors , and its computing power is no less than 20.2 petaflops .
The energy consumption of the Trinity computer is 7,578 kW, being one of the most efficient in the United States .
AI Cloud Bridge, with 19 petaflops
We arrive at what is possibly one of the most energy efficient computers in the ranking, with only 1,649 kW of electricity consumption .
The supercomputer located at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan has 19.88 petaflops and a system powered by Xeon Gold processors and NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics cards.
The total number of cores reaches 391,680 in global computation .
SuperMUC-NG, with 19 petaflops
The SuperMUC-NG computer located at the Leibniz Superinformatics Center in Germany is proclaimed as the ninth most powerful computer in the world and the second most powerful in Europe.
With up to 19.47 petaflops of power , the German supercomputer is built by Lenovo and powered by Intel Xeon Platinum and Intel Onmi-Path processors.
The system behind all of this configuration is based on the well-known Lenovo ThinkSystem SD650 architecture .
Lassen, with 18 petaflops
We reach the end of the list with the Lassen supercomputer, a machine developed by IBM that drinks from IBM Power9 processors and NVIDIA Tesla V100 graphics cards .
The computer, based on an IBM Power System S922LC architecture, has 288,288 cores, and its total floating point computing power is 18.2 petaflops .
Unfortunately, the data on the energy consumption of the machine is unknown.