Roadrunner (supercomputer)

For other uses, see Roadrunner (disambiguation).
Roadrunner
ActiveOperational in 2008
Final completion in 2009
SponsorsIBM
OperatorsNational Nuclear Security Administration
LocationLos Alamos National Laboratory
Architecture12,960 IBM PowerXCell 8i CPUs, 6,480 AMD Opteron dual-core processors, InfiniBand
Power2.35 MW
Operating systemRed Hat Enterprise Linux
Space296 racks, 560 m2 (6,000 sq ft)
Memory103.6 TiB
Storage1,000,000 TiB
Speed1.042 petaFLOPS
CostUS$100 million[1] (equivalent to $142 million in 2023)
RankingTOP500: 10, June 2011
PurposeModeling the decay of the U.S. nuclear arsenal
LegacyFirst TOP500 Linpack sustained 1.0 petaflops, May 25, 2008
Websitewww.lanl.gov/roadrunner/[dead link]

Roadrunner was a supercomputer built by IBM for the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA. The US$100-million Roadrunner was designed for a peak performance of 1.7 petaflops. It achieved 1.026 petaflops on May 25, 2008, to become the world's first TOP500 LINPACK sustained 1.0 petaflops system.[2][3]

In November 2008, it reached a top performance of 1.456 petaFLOPS, retaining its top spot in the TOP500 list.[4] It was also the fourth-most energy-efficient supercomputer in the world on the Supermicro Green500 list, with an operational rate of 444.94 megaflops per watt of power used. The hybrid Roadrunner design was then reused for several other energy efficient supercomputers.[5] Roadrunner was decommissioned by Los Alamos on March 31, 2013.[6] In its place, Los Alamos commissioned a supercomputer called Cielo, which was installed in 2010.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference ibmpress was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Gaudin, Sharon (2008-06-09). "IBM's Roadrunner smashes 4-minute mile of supercomputing". Computerworld. Archived from the original on 2008-12-24. Retrieved 2008-06-10.
  3. ^ Fildes, Jonathan (2008-06-09). "Supercomputer sets petaflop pace". BBC News. Retrieved 2008-06-09.
  4. ^ "TOP500 Supercomputer Sites". top500.org. 11 November 2008.
  5. ^ "The Green500 List — June 2009". The Green500. Archived from the original on 2013-05-12. Retrieved 2013-04-02.
  6. ^ Montoya, Susan (30 March 2013). "End of the Line for Roadrunner Supercomputer". The Associated Press. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.