Tesla GPUs (graphics processing units) from Nvidia, a leader in programmable GPUs, are now powering three of the top five supercomputers, said a report.

Tesla GPUs were featured in the number one, three and four slots with the recently announced Tianhe-1A system taking the top spot with a performance record of 2.507 petaflops, said the November 2010 list of the “Top500” fastest supercomputers in the world at top500.org.

The top three GPU supercomputers deliver more performance than the rest of the Top 10 systems combined, said the report.

The most notable new entry to the Top 500 is Tsubame 2.0, the new supercomputer from Tokyo Institute of Technology. The system delivers petaflop-class performance while remaining extremely efficient, consuming just 1.340 megawatts, dramatically less power than any other system on the top five.

“Tsubame 2.0 is an impressive achievement, balancing performance and power to deliver the most energy efficient petaflop-class supercomputer ever built,” said Bill Dally, chief scientist at Nvidia.

“The path to exascale computing will be forged by groundbreaking systems like Tsubame 2.0,” he added. – TradeArabia News Service