Russia aiming for PetaFLOPS performance

There are currently two supercomputers with performance peaks over 1 PetaFLOPS, Jaguar that topped the latest Top 500 list with 1.79 PetaFLOPS and runner-up IBM Roadrunner with 1.042 PetaFLOPS. The third PetaFLOPS supercomputer looks to be placed in Russia where the biggest university of the nation, Moscow State, is planning an upgrade of its 350.1 TeraFLOPS Lomonosov supercomputer.

Lomonosov is currently the twelfth fastest supercomputer and built around Intel’s quad-core Xeon 5570 processors, counting 35778 (with 2.93GHz clock frequency) and 56 Terabyte of RAM for more than acceptable performance.

Moscow State university has already invested 11.94 million dollar in its supercomputer and it now hopes to get a clearance from the president and prime minister for an additional 51.2 million dollars.

Moscow State University’s Lomonosov system as it looks today.

Exactly when the upgrade is supposed to be finished is uncertain, but switching Intel’s quad-cores for new hexa-cores with higher clock frequencies is an option. Increasing the number of clusters is most likely also needed to reach the goal of the number two slot on the Top 500 ladder.