In the June 2009 TOP 500 list, the Oak Ridge National Labs’ “Jaguar” system was #2, edging close behind the “Roadrunner” cluster and was the first wholly x86 system to achieve a petaflop in performance.  Of course, both utilize AMD Opteron processors to reach their record shattering performance.

However, this summer, Oak Ridge embarked on a project to increase their capacity and performance – an upgrade of the 37,000 processors in the cluster to Six-Core AMD Opteron processors. 

Because of AMD’s consistent platform strategy, with processor commonality and common sockets, the task was remarkably simple.   It took approximately 5 minutes per 8P server module to do the upgrade.  (Watch the upgrade here.)

When we developed the Socket F (1207), we anticipated a long life for the socket. As a matter of fact, we anticipate that socket living through the end of 2010.  Customers who have standardized on products based on those processors will probably want some consistency across their data centers. And customers that have built out capacity on those platforms might want to upgrade, something that is easy and painless for our customers. Contrast this with our competitor’s “tick tock” approach – which threatens a continual pace of disruption.

With this upgrade, “Jaguar” now takes a new spot in the TOP500 list.  First.  That is one fast cat – and it is purring along on AMD Opteron technology.

Researchers were quickly back online and with this additional performance they now have the ability to solve complex (frankly, mind-boggling) problems faster, in addition to tackling more projects, some that have previously been out of their reach.

To get an understanding of Oak Ridge National Labs’ scientific research and their take on the TOP500, take a look at this video.  

John Fruehe is the Director of Product Marketing for Server/Workstation products at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such linked sites and no endorsement is implied.