IBM Reveals Next-Gen Supercomputer

IBM previewed its next-generation supercomputer at the SC2005 Conference in Seattle Monday.

The new POWER5+ p5-575 is a processor-based server system that can be easily clustered for high-performance supercomputing. It uses the same thin building block packages as the POWER5 p5-575, which has worked on genome research, car crash testing, petroleum exploration, and oceanographic, atmospheric, and energy studies.

IBM said the system uses ultra-dense packaging technology to deliver high-speed connections between advanced DDR2 dual rate memory and eight to 16 POWER5+ processors. That nearly doubles system memory bandwidth, according to IBM.

The technology will allow up to 128 sixteen-processor p5-575 cluster nodes to create one system with more than 2,000 CPUs. It can be used for complex computations and for deployment of large-scale data mining and business intelligence.

The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts will be one of the first customers to use the supercomputing system when the scalable system becomes available in the first half of 2006.