These pieces are an unusual mix of different processors, according to Kasdorf, including AMDs Opterons, IBMs PowerPCs, and even a hybrid version of the "cell engine" chips developed for Sonys Playstation 3.
On Roadrunner you have to program for three computers; you have to program for the Opterons, the PowerPC cores, and then the cell cores, says Kasdorf. Theres three different architectures with three different characteristics.
Despite taking the roof off the Top 500 list, Kasdorf feels that other sites will soon catch up with Roadrunner, namely the fifth-placed "Jaguar" system at the Oak Ridge National Lab, and the IBM offering at Lawrence Livermore.
The Oak Ridge system will probably exceed a Petaflop by next year, and the Blue Gene people plan to double the [systems] size, he says, adding that both of these systems also use less complex processor architectures.
For enterprises with limited programming resources, it is these systems, as opposed to Roadrunner, which may provide the real benchmark for supercomputing.
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