Supercomputers run exclusively on Linux because its open‑source nature offers unparalleled cost savings, deep customizability, superior scheduling performance, and robust stability and security—advantages that closed‑source systems like Windows and macOS cannot match for massive parallel workloads.
The article explains that Linux dominates the TOP500 supercomputer list because its open‑source nature allows cost‑free licensing, deep kernel customization, extreme flexibility, superior task scheduling, minimal system overhead, and rapid community‑driven security patches, advantages that Windows and macOS cannot match for massive parallel workloads.
A software engineer recounts how forced Windows updates drove him to replace his PC with Linux, then examines statistical desktop adoption, government migrations, gaming improvements, developer preferences, and supercomputer dominance to explain why Windows is losing users while Linux gains momentum.
This article explains the fundamentals of high‑performance computing (HPC), covering serial and parallel processing, the roles of CPUs and GPUs, system architectures, FLOPS metrics, current supercomputer capabilities, and the scale needed to reach the next exa‑FLOPS era.
The article provides an in‑depth analysis of HPE Cray’s upcoming EX supercomputing platforms, detailing unprecedented GPU density, liquid‑cooling architecture, the high‑speed Slingshot 400 interconnect, and complementary ProLiant Compute XD servers, while outlining release timelines and performance targets for AI and traditional HPC workloads.
The article reviews the rapid rise of ARM‑compatible CPUs in high‑performance computing, detailing national strategies, TOP500 deployments, commercial HPC offerings, major vendors, architectural evolutions such as ARMv9 and SVE2, and future trends toward higher single‑core performance, enhanced vectorization, memory bandwidth, security, and broader ecosystem adoption.
This article explains the concept and history of high‑performance computing (HPC), its serial and parallel processing architectures, performance metrics such as FLOPS, major application domains, and the rapid market growth and competitive landscape in China driven by national policies and industry investment.
This article explains the fundamentals of high‑performance computing (HPC), covering serial and parallel processing, CPU vs GPU roles, heterogeneous architectures, FLOPS performance metrics, system design challenges, and why HPC is essential for large‑scale scientific and engineering simulations.
Despite nearing retirement, 90‑year‑old Boris Babayan, the USSR’s first computer science student and chief architect of the Elbrus supercomputers, continues to influence modern processor design, from pioneering VLIW architectures to his pivotal role at Intel, while also excelling as a mountaineering champion.
This article provides a comprehensive overview of InfiniBand technology, its high‑bandwidth low‑latency architecture, dominant market players such as Mellanox, and its critical impact on the performance and evolution of global supercomputing systems as reflected in TOP500 rankings.
The 54th TOP500 list released in November 2019 shows China and the United States still dominate in both the number and performance of supercomputers, with the total HPL performance reaching 1.65 exaflops and the entry threshold rising to 1.14 petaflops.
The 52nd TOP500 list released in November 2018 shows US DOE machines dominating the top ten, highlights performance gains of Summit and Sierra, details the hardware of leading supercomputers worldwide, and analyzes country shares, manufacturers, accelerator usage, interconnect technologies, and energy‑efficiency rankings such as Green500 and HPCG.
The 2017 TOP500 list shows China's Sunway TaihuLight leading with 125,435.9 TFlop/s, highlights the role of Linpack‑based rankings, details vendor participation, and contrasts performance‑focused TOP500 with energy‑focused Green500, underscoring China's growing high‑performance computing capabilities and the importance of power efficiency.
On July 30, Alibaba Cloud announced its ambitious plan to develop a general‑purpose quantum computer within the next 10‑15 years, highlighting the potential for speeds billions of times faster than today’s supercomputers, and sharing a behind‑the‑scenes tour of its new quantum research laboratory.
