The Scalable POWERparallel (SP) is a discontinued series of supercomputers in the RS/6000 line by IBM. The first model, the SP1, was introduced in February 1993, and new models were introduced throughout the 1990s until the RS/6000 was succeeded by eServer pSeries in October 2000. The SP is a distributed memory system, consisting of multiple RS/6000-based nodes interconnected by an IBM-proprietary switch called the High Performance Switch (HPS). The nodes are clustered using software called PSSP, which is mainly written in Perl.
Computer scientist Marc Snir was awarded the Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for his contributions to supercomputing, which included his work on the SP.
Models +List of modelsModel# of CPUsCPUCPU MHzMemoryIntroducedDiscontinuedSP11POWER1++62.564 to 256 MB1993-02-021994-12-16 Thin Node 1 POWER2 66 64 to 512 MB 1994-04-06IBM Announcement Letter ZG94-0159: IBM Scalable POWERparallel Systems 9076 SP2 and Enhancements for SP1 1996-07-26IBM Announcement 996-181: Hardware Withdrawal: RISC System/6000 SP POWERquery and Selected Models and Features -- Replacements Available Thin Node 2 1995-02-07IBM Announcement Letter ZG95-0145: 9076 POWERparallel SP2 Models 204, 304, 3B4, and 404 1997-06-27IBM Announcement Letter 997-078: Hardware Withdrawal: Selected RS/6000 Models and Features -- Replacements Available Wide Node 64 MB to 2 GB 1994-04-06 1996-07-26 77 MHz Wide Node 77 1995-08-22IBM Announcement Letter ZG95-0364: RISC SYSTEM/6000 SP 77MHz Wide Models, 2AX Models, and Enhancements 1997-06-27 High 1 2, 4, 6, 8 PowerPC 604 112 ? 1996-07-23 1998-01-08 High 2 PowerPC 604e 200 1997-08-26 1998-04-21 332 Thin 2, 4 332 1998-04-21 2000-12-29 332 Wide 160 Thin 1 P2SC 160 1997-10-06 1998-04-21 Thin P2SC 120 1996-10-08 Wide P2SC 135 POWER3 High 2, 4, 6, 8 POWER3 222 1999-09-13 2000-12-29 POWER3 High POWER3-II 375 2000-07-18 2002-12-27 POWER3 Thin 1, 2 POWER3 200 1999-09-01 2000-06-30 POWER3 Thin POWER3-II 375 2000-02-07 2003-04-08 POWER3 Thin 450 2002-01-22 POWER3 Wide 1, 2 POWER3 200 1999-02-01 2000-06-30POWER3 Wide 2, 4 POWER3-II 375 2000-02-07 2003-04-08 POWER3 Wide 2, 4 450 2002-01-22
Deployments The Cornell Theory Center had a 512-node system that was ranked as the sixth fastest supercomputer in the world by the November 1995 edition of the Top500 List. From a peak performance of 136.19GFLOPS, it obtained 88.40GFLOPS on the LINPACK benchmark. Deep Blue, the first computer to win a chess game against a reigning world champion in a match with Garry Kasparov in 1996. ASCI Blue Pacific is a PowerPC 604-based system with a peak performance of 3.9TFLOPS. It was installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1998 as part of the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI). ASCI White is a 512-node system with a peak performance of 12.3TFLOPS. It was installed at the LLNL in 2001 as part of ASCI, and was ranked #1 in the Top500 List from November 2000 to November 2001. Seaborg, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was ranked as the fifth fastest supercomputer in the world when it debuted in the June 2003 edition of the Top500 List. From a peak performance of 9.98TFLOPS, it obtained 7.30TFLOPS on the LINPACK benchmark.
See also
Blue Gene
References
External links