Report Identifies Trends in HPC Architecture, Configurations

 

SUNNYVALE, CA – June 7, 2012 -IBM again took the top spot in High Performance Computing (HPC) system vendors named by end users worldwide,
according to the latest report by HPC industry analyst firm Intersect360 Research. IBM, Dell, HP, SGI, and Cray collectively captured 56% of system
vendor mentions, according to the newly released HPC User Site Census: Systemsreport.

The report, part of Intersect360 Research’s HPC Market Advisory service, provides a detailed examination of the computational systems installed at a broad
sample of HPC user sites, including analysis of component technologies such as processors and accelerators. Through its partnership with Tabor Communications,
Intersect360 Research surveyed the worldwide readership of HPCwire. Future years‘ Site Census surveys will leverage the newly created HPC500
group.

“Our goal in this report was to discover system-level trends within the HPC user communities by examining supplier penetration, architecture trends, and
node configurations,” said Dr. Christopher G. Willard, Ph.D., Chief Research Officer of Intersect360 Research. “As with previous years, we surveyed
a broad range of users about their current computer system installations, storage systems, networks, middleware, and the applications software supporting
these installations.”

Additional findings of the report include the following:

  • IBM, followed by Dell, was the top named vendor for number of nodes installed when outliers (i.e., systems with 2,000 or more nodes) were excluded.
  • Two-processor nodes continue to dominate cluster installations at surveyed sites, with a 60% market share. Four-processor nodes are installed on about
    14% of the clusters. Both shares have remained relatively constant over the past five years.
  • Multi-core processors represent the majority of systems shipped since 2006. For recent installations and upgrades, single-core processor share is now
    in the very low single digits. Four-core processors hold the greatest share, followed closely by six-core processors.
  • Memory usage per node and processor are growing at an exponential rate. Memory per core has remained relatively constant over the years. However, the
    dramatic increase in cores per processor is driving up memory requirements at the node level. This growth in memory requirements risks changing
    the cost equations for HPC nodes and affecting overall system design.
  • Accelerators are used on about 21% of the installed base, with on-node being the preferred configuration. Intersect360 Research believes that this
    technology is being evaluated at this time and may turn out to be an important component in future HPC systems.

Companies mentioned in this report include: Ace Computers, Advanced Clustering, Advanced HPC, Amazon, Angstrom, Apple, Appro, Aspen Systems, Atipa, Bull,
ClusterVision, Cray, D.E. Shaw Research, Dell, E4 Computer Engineering, Fujitsu , HP, HPC System, IBM, Intel, Isilon, Linux Networx, Megware, Microway
Technology, NEC, Netezza, Nvidia, OmniTech, Oracle, Penguin Computing, PSSC Labs, R Associates, Rackspace, SGI, Silicon Mechanics, Supermicro, Tibco,
T-Platforms, V3Gaming, GPU-Xpander, VA Linux, and Western Scientific.

An Executive Summary of this report is available for download at www.intersect360.com/industry/reports.

Other reports in this series include: HPC User Site Census: Processors;HPC User Site Census: Applications;HPC User Site Census:Interconnects/ Networks;and HPC User Site Census: Storage.

About Intersect360 Research

Intersect360 Research is a market intelligence, research, and consulting advisory practice focused on suppliers, users, and policymakers across the High
Performance Computing ecosystem. Intersect360 Research relies on both user-based and supplier-based research to form a complete perspective of HPC
market dynamics, trends, and usage models, including both technical and business applications.

More information on Intersect360 Research can be found at: www.intersect360.com. More information on HPC500
can be found at: www.hpc500.com.

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