A publication of the Advanced Simulation & Computing Division, NA-121.2, NNSA Defense Programs
December 2008
NA-ASC-500-08—Issue 9
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Roadrunner Maintains Top Supercomputing Spot
Roadrunner, the world’s first petaFLOPS system, ushers in a new era of computing for all applications of national interest. A revolutionary change, Roadrunner puts the nation on a different path to discovery. Though the revolution is not necessarily about speed, Roadrunner maintained its lead on the TOP500 list of supercomputers. The 32nd edition of the world’s top supercomputers was released on November 14, 2008, showing Roadrunner in the number one position with 1.105 petaFLOPS. Also cited for extraordinary energy efficiency, Roadrunner is number seven on the November 2008 Green500 list. The full Roadrunner system is now installed at Los Alamos.
Like other ASC supercomputers, Roadrunner will continue to challenge the state of art for computer scientists and manufacturers. Commended for its government and industry HPC collaboration, Los Alamos and its Roadrunner partners IBM, Panasas, and Voltaire received prestigious annual awards from the HPCwire online news and information web site that focuses on high-productivity computing. They received both the Readers’ Choice Award and Editors’ Choice Award for Top supercomputing achievement, and Editors’ Choice Award for Best HPC collaboration between government and industry.
Like a large experimental facility, Roadrunner is a tool for scientific insight to unknown physics in weapons systems as well as investigations in materials science, bioenergy, cosmology, plasma physics, epidemiology, and nanomaterials. Plans are to begin 4-month open-science runs in January 2009 to help with system stabilization efforts. For more information on Roadrunner open-science projects, go to http://www.lanl.gov/asc/docs/rr_open_science_final.pdf.
Results from a simulation of multimode Rayleigh-Taylor instability using the 3D PPM multifluid gas dynamics code. From Paul Woodward, University of Minnesota
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