NEC to launch world's fastest vector supercomputer

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 17 October 2006 22:18

Your IT - Home IT

Japanese electronics and computer giant NEC Corporation has launched a new supercomputer in the SX series, model SX-8R (an enhanced version of SX-8), which ranks among the world's most powerful computing devices with a peak vector performance of 144 TFLOPS.

The world's fastest supercomputer is acknowledged to be the BlueGene/L System, a joint development of IBM and US Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration and installed at DOE’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, Calif. It has reached a Linpack benchmark performance of 280.6 TFLOPS.

The new NEC supercomputer achieves its blinding speed of 144TFLOPS by mounting up to 4,096 CPUs.

The monthly rental price of the SX-8R will start from approximately 1,210,000 yen (US$10,200). NEC expects 200 system sales over the next year.