Eco Tech: IBM’s next-gen supercomputer to be energy-efficient

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Eco Factor: IBM is trying to increase processing power without increasing electric power.

IBM has announced plans to build the next-gen Blue Gene-class supercomputer, one which would scale up to 20 petaflops. Sequoia, as the new supercomputer is called, will be 15 times faster than the BlueGene/P supercomputer but will have the same footprint, and the increase in electric power would also be minimized.

IBM hopes to install this new system by the year 2012, and it will be primarily used for high-end applications. The system will be based on 45nm processors with 16 cores on a single chip. In total the system will have 1.6 million cores in its 96 racks, which will be fed by 1.6 petabytes of memory.

The Dark Side:

Systems as powerful as the BlueGene/P or the upcoming Sequoia produce massive amounts of heat. Cooling at this scale requires powerful energy-guzzling systems, which could ruin IBM’s plan for a green supercomputer.

Via: EETimes/GizmoWatch

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