Some idea of what might be happening in the near future in supercomputer design can be gleaned from a press release issued by the US Department of Energy (DoE). It came out of the SUPERCOMPUTING 2002 Conference held last November in Baltimore, MD. The press release announced that the DoE had awarded IBM a $290 (USD) million contract to build the two fastest supercomputers in the world with a combined peak speed of 460 TFlops. To get an idea of the speed computing throughput 460 teraflops represents, the press release states that, “These two systems will have more than one-and-a-half times the combined processing power of all 500 machines on the recently announced TOP 500 List of supercomputers.”从美国能源部发行的通告中，可以收集一些有关在不久的将来超级计算机设计中可能发生的事情的概念。它来自在马里兰州巴尔的摩市召开的2002年超级计算会议。该通告称能源部已给IBM拨款2.9亿美元建造世界上最快的两部超级计算机，其最高综合速度为每秒460兆兆次。为了理解每秒460兆兆次速度的含义，通告解释说,“这两个系统将会具有最近发布的500强超级计算机的总处理能力的1.5倍还多。”
The first system, “ASCI Purple,” [apparently the DoE likes colorful names] will be the world’s first supercomputer capable of 100 Tflops. ASCI Purple will have a massive cluster of POWER-based IBM eServer systems and IBM storage systems. This supercomputer represents a fifth-generation system under the Advanced Simulation and Computing Initiative (ASCI) Program. It will serve as the primary supercomputer for DoE.第一个系统“ASCI Purple”,[显然能源部；生动的名字]将会是世界的第一部能够运算每秒100兆兆次的超级计算机。ASCI Purple将具有基于POWER系列的IBM Server系统和IBM存储系统的宏大组群。这台超级计算机代表模拟和计算行动计划(ASCI)支持的第五代系统。它将作为能源部主要的超级计算机。
According to the press release,the second system will be a research machine called Blue Gene/L.It will employ advanced IBM semiconductor and system technologies based on new architectures being developed by DoE and IBM. Blue Gene/L is expected to achieve a peak performance of 360 TFlops with 130,000 processors running under the Linux operating system.It will have the capability to process data at a rate of one terabit per second,equivalent to the data transmitted by ten thousand weather satellites.Applications are expected to include the simulation of very complex physical phenomena in areas such as turbulence, biology and high explosives.根据通告，第二个系统将会是一部被称为Blue Gene/L的研究机器，它将使用基于新结构的先进的IBM半导体和系统技术,该新结构是能源部和IBM共同开发的。BlueGene/L具有13万台处理器，在Linux操作系统下运行，可望达到每秒360兆兆次的性能。它将具有以每秒1兆兆位的速度处理数据的能力,等同于一万个气象卫星传输的数据。其应用预期包括对非常复杂现象的模拟，如湍流、生物学和高空爆炸。
The ASCI Purple system will use IBM’s next generation microprocessor,the POWER5,employing a total of 12,544 of them.These 12,544 processors will be spread among 196 individual computers.The total memory bandwidth will be 156,000 GBs, the equivalent of simultaneously playing 31,200 DVD movies.A super-fast data highway with a total interconnect bandwidth of 12,500 GB will interconnect the 196 computers.The IBM AIXL operating system will be used to run this configuration.The operating system will contain 50 terabytes of memory,an amount that is 400,000 times the capacity of the average desktop PC.There will also be two petabytes of disk storage or holding the content of approximately one billion books.ASCI Purple系统将使用IBM的下一代微处理器POWER5,总数为12,544个。这12,544个处理器将分布在196部单独的计算机之中。总内存带宽将是15.6GB,等同于同时地播放31,200部DVD电影。一条具有12,500GB带宽的超快速数据通道将会把196台计算机互相连接。IBM AIXL操作系统将用于运行一个配置。该操作系统将包50兆兆字节内存，容量是平均桌面个人计算机的40万倍。还将有2千兆兆字节的磁盘存储，或可容纳大约十亿本书的内容。
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