Virgina Tech's System X Slips to Seventh

V irginia Techis System X cluster, consisting of 1,100 dual-2.3GHz Xserve G5s, has slipped from third to seventh in the Top 500 List of Supercomputer Sites, while two new entries took first and second.

NECis Earth Simulator surrendered its reign as the worldis fastest supercomputer to IBMis BlueGene/L DD2, which achieved a sustained performance of 70.72 TFlops, or roughly twice that of the Earth Simulator. BlueGene/L features 32,768 processors and will be used by the United Stateis Department of Energy. SGIis Altix, used by NASA/Ames Research Center and packing over 10,000 processors, took second place with a sustained performance of 51.87 TFlops.

System X, which performed at a respectable 12.25 TFlops, maintains plenty of distinction on the list, however: itis the only self-made system in the Top 100, and the only cluster in the Top 100 built with Xserves. Itis also possibly the most affordable, costing about $5.5 million to construct.