The first version of what became today’s TOP500 list started as an exercise for a small conference in Germany in June 1993. Out of curiosity, the authors decided to revisit the list in November 1993 to see how things had changed. About that time they realized they might be on to something and decided to continue compiling the list, which is now a much-anticipated, much-watched and much-debated twice-yearly event. The TOP500 list is compiled by Erich Strohmaier and Horst Simon of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Jack Dongarra of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville; and Martin Meuer of Prometeus, Germany.

1. Highlights of the 43rd TOP500 List
ISC’14, Leipzig, Germany

2. 43rd List: The TOP10
# Site Manufacturer Computer Country Cores
Rmax
[Pflops]
Power
[MW]
1
National University of Defense
Technology
NUDT
Tianhe-2
NUDT TH-IVB-FEP,
Xeon 12C 2.2GHz, IntelXeon Phi
China 3,120,000 33.9 17.8
2 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Cray
Titan
Cray XK7, Opteron 16C 2.2GHz, Gemini, NVIDIA
K20x
USA 560,640 17.6 8.21
3 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory IBM
Sequoia
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
USA 1,572,864 17.2 7.89
4
RIKEN Advanced Institute for
Computational Science
Fujitsu
K Computer
SPARC64 VIIIfx 2.0GHz,
Tofu Interconnect
Japan 795,024 10.5 12.7
5 Argonne National Laboratory IBM
Mira
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
USA 786,432 8.59 3.95
6
Swiss National Supercomputing Centre
(CSCS)
Cray
Piz Daint
Cray XC30, Xeon E5 8C 2.6GHz, Aries, NVIDIA
K20x
Switzer-land 115,984 6.27 2.33
7 Texas Advanced Computing Center/UT Dell
Stampede
PowerEdge C8220,
Xeon E5 8C 2.7GHz, Intel Xeon Phi
USA 462,462 5.17 4.51
8 Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) IBM
JuQUEEN
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
Germany 458,752 5.01 2.30
9 Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory IBM
Vulcan
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
USA 393,216 4.29 1.97
10 Government Cray Cray XC30,
Xeon E5 12C 2.7GHz, Aries
USA 225,984 3.14

3. • Titan, a Cray XK7 system installed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE)
Oak Ridge National Laboratory remains the No. 2 system. It achieved 17.59
Pflop/s on the Linpack benchmark using 261,632 of its NVIDIA K20x
accelerator cores. Titan is one of the most energy efficient systems on the
list consuming a total of 8.21 MW and delivering 2.143 Gflops/W.
• Sequoia, an IBM BlueGene/Q system installed at DOE’s Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory, is again the No. 3 system. It was first
delivered in 2011 and has achieved 17.17 Pflop/s on the Linpack
benchmark using 1,572,864 cores.
• Fujitsu’s K computer installed at the RIKEN Advanced Institute for
Computational Science (AICS) in Kobe, Japan, is the No. 4 system with
10.51 Pflop/s on the Linpack benchmark using 705,024 SPARC64
processing cores.
• Mira, a BlueGene/Q system installed at DOE’s Argonne National
Laboratory, is No. 5 with 8.59 Pflop/s on the Linpack benchmark using
786,432 cores.
Highlights: TOP10

4. • At No. 6 is Piz Daint, a Cray XC30 system installed at the Swiss National
Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano, Switzerland and the most
powerful system in Europe. Piz Daint achieved 6.27 Pflop/s on the Linpack
benchmark using 73,808 NVIDIA K20x accelerator cores. Piz Daint is also
the most energy efficient systems in the TOP10 consuming a total of 2.33
MW and delivering 2.7 Gflops/W.
• Stampede, a Dell PowerEdge C8220 system installed at the Texas
Advanced Computing Center of the University of Texas, Austin, is at No. 7.
It also uses Intel Xeon Phi processors (previously known as MIC) to achieve
its 5.17 Pflop/s.
• The second system in Europe is at No. 8. It is also a BlueGene/Q system
called JUQEEN installed at the Forschungszentrum Juelich in Germany and
is listed with 5.01 Pflop/s.
• No. 9 is taken by Vulcan, another IBM BlueGene/Q system at Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory. It was temporarily combined with the No.
3 system but is now operated independently. It achieved 4.29 Pflop/s.
• At No. 10 is the only new system in the Top10, a Cray XC30 installed at a
Government location in the USA with 3.14 Pflop/s.
Highlights: TOP10

5. 42nd List: The TOP10
# Site Manufacturer Computer Country Cores
Rmax
[Pflops
]
Power
[MW]
1
National University of Defense
Technology
NUDT
Tianhe-2
NUDT TH-IVB-FEP,
Xeon 12C 2.2GHz, IntelXeon Phi
China 3,120,000 33.9 17.8
2 Oak Ridge National Laboratory Cray
Titan
Cray XK7, Opteron 16C 2.2GHz, Gemini,
NVIDIA K20x
USA 560,640 17.6 8.21
3
Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory
IBM
Sequoia
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
USA 1,572,864 17.2 7.89
4
RIKEN Advanced Institute for
Computational Science
Fujitsu
K Computer
SPARC64 VIIIfx 2.0GHz,
Tofu Interconnect
Japan 795,024 10.5 12.7
5 Argonne National Laboratory IBM
Mira
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
USA 786,432 8.59 3.95
6
Swiss National Supercomputing
Centre (CSCS)
Cray
Piz Daint
Cray XC30, Xeon E5 8C 2.6GHz, Aries,
NVIDIA K20x
Switzer-land 115,984 6.27 2.33
7
Texas Advanced Computing
Center/UT
Dell
Stampede
PowerEdge C8220,
Xeon E5 8C 2.7GHz, Intel Xeon Phi
USA 462,462 5.17 4.51
8 Forschungszentrum Juelich (FZJ) IBM
JuQUEEN
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
Germany 458,752 5.01 2.30
9
Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory
IBM
Vulcan
BlueGene/Q,
Power BQC 16C 1.6GHz, Custom
USA 393,216 4.29 1.97
10 Leibniz Rechenzentrum IBM
SuperMUC
iDataPlex DX360M4,
Xeon E5 8C 2.7GHz, Infiniband FDR
Germany 147,456 2.90 3.52

6. 116
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
1993
1994
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
Replacement Rate

7. • The overall list-by-list growth rates of performance are for the
second time in a row at historical low values.
• The performance of the last system on the list (#500) has
systematically lagged behind historical trends for the last 5 years
and now appears to be on a different growth trajectory then
before. From 1994 to 2008 it grew by 90% per year. Since 2008 it
only grows by 55% per year
• The growth of the average performance of all systems in the list
lagged only for the last two lists behind historical averages. This
average is noticeably influenced by the very large systems on the
top of the list. Recent installations of very large systems until June
2013 have counteracted the reduced growth rate at the bottom of
the list. This offers an indication that the market for the very largest
systems might currently behave differently from the market of mid-
sized and smaller supercomputers.
Highlights from the Overall List

8. Annual Performance Increase of the
TOP500
1
1.2
1.4
1.6
1.8
2
2.2
2.4
2.6
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
− Moore’s Law
− TOP500 Trend

9. Performance Development
0.1
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
100000000
1E+09
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
59.7 GFlop/s
400 MFlop/s
1.17 TFlop/s
33.9 PFlop/s
134 TFlop/s
274 PFlop/s
SUM
N=1
N=500
1 Gflop/s
1 Tflop/s
100 Mflop/s
100 Gflop/s
100 Tflop/s
10 Gflop/s
10 Tflop/s
1 Pflop/s
100 Pflop/s
10 Pflop/s
1 Eflop/s

10. Performance Development
0.1
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
100000000
1E+09
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
59.7 GFlop/s
400 MFlop/s
1.17 TFlop/s
33.9 PFlop/s
134 TFlop/s
274 PFlop/s
SUM
N=1
N=500
1 Gflop/s
1 Tflop/s
100 Mflop/s
100 Gflop/s
100 Tflop/s
10 Gflop/s
10 Tflop/s
1 Pflop/s
100 Pflop/s
10 Pflop/s
1 Eflop/s
June 2008

11. Projected Performance Development
0.1
1
10
100
1000
10000
100000
1000000
10000000
00000000
1E+09
1E+10
1E+11
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020
SUM
N=1
N=500
1 Gflop/s
1 Tflop/s
100 Mflop/s
100 Gflop/s
100 Tflop/s
10 Gflop/s
10 Tflop/s
1 Pflop/s
100 Pflop/s
10 Pflop/s
1 Eflop/s

12. Performance Fraction of TOP5 Systems
0%
2%
4%
6%
8%
10%
12%
14%
16%
18%
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
1
2
3
4
5

13. 0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
Rank at which
Half of total Performance is accumulated

14. • A measure of statistical dispersion intended to
represent inequality
– Area A above the Lorenz curve
(cummulative distribution)
– Gini = A/(A+B)
– 0: All members have the same
– 1: One member has everything
Gini Coefficient

15. Gini Coefficient of the TOP500
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

16. Accelerators
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Systems
Intel Xeon Phi
Clearspeed
IBM Cell
ATI Radeon
Nvidia Kepler
Nvidia Fermi

17. Performance Share of Accelerators
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
FractionofTotalTOP500
Performance

18. System Age (in List Count)
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
4
3
2
1
0

19. Average System Age
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
1995
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
Age[Years]
1.27 years

20. United States
47%
China
15%Japan
6%
United Kingdom
6%
France
5%
Germany
4%
India
2%
Canada
2% Others
13%
United States
China
Japan
United Kingdom
France
Germany
India
Canada
Others
Countries / System Share

21. Performance of Countries
0
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
2000
2002
2004
2006
2008
2010
2012
2014
TotalPerformance[Tflop/s]
US
EU
Japan
China

22. HP, 182, 36%
IBM, 176, 35%
Cray Inc., 51,
10%
SGI, 19, 4%
Bull, 16, 3%
Dell, 8, 2%
Fujitsu, 8, 2%
NUDT, 4, 1%
MEGWARE, 4,
1%
Others, 32,
6%
HP
IBM
Cray Inc.
SGI
Bull
Dell
Fujitsu
NUDT
MEGWARE
Others
Vendors / System Share

23. IBM, 14, 28%
Cray Inc, 12, 24%
SGI, 5,
10%
Fujitsu, 3, 6%
NUDT, 3, 6%
Bull, 3, 6%
Others, 10, 20%
IBM
Cray Inc
SGI
Fujitsu
NUDT
Bull
Others
Vendors (TOP50) / System Share

24. Cores per Socket
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014
16
12
10
9
8
6
4
2
1

25. Power Consumption
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Power[MW]
TOP10
TOP50
TOP500
2.7 x in 5 y
2.6 x in 5 y
3.0 x in 5 y

26. Power Efficiency
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Linpack/Power[Gflops/kW]
TOP10
TOP50
TOP500

27. Power Efficiency
0
500
1,000
1,500
2,000
2,500
3,000
3,500
4,000
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Linpack/Power[Gflops/kW]
TOP10
TOP50
TOP500
Max-Efficiency
BlueGene/Q
Cell
Mic
AMD
FirePro
Tsubame KFC
NVIDIA K20x

28. Most Power Efficient Architectures
Computer
Rmax/
Power
Tsubame KFC, NEC, Xeon 6C 2.1GHz, Infiniband FDR, NVIDIA K20x 3,418
Romeo, Bull Cluster, Xeon 8C 2.6GHz, Infiniband FDR, NVIDIA K20x 3,131
HA-PACS TCA, Cray Cluster, Xeon 10C 2.8GHz, QDX, NVIDIA K20x 2,980
SANAM, Adtech, ASUS, Xeon 8C 2.0GHz, Infiniband FDR, AMD FirePro 2,973
HPC2, iDataPlex DX360, Xeon 10C 2.8GHz, Infiniband FDR, NVIDIA K20x 2,702
Piz Daint, Cray XC30, Xeon 8C 2.6GHz, Aries, NVIDIA K20x 2,697
Shadow, Cray CS300-LC, Xeon E5-2680v2 10C 2.8GHz, Infiniband FDR,
Xeon Phi 5110P
2,495
BlueGene/Q, Power BQC 16C 1.60 GHz, Custom 2,300
HPCC, Cluster Platform SL250s, Xeon 8C 2.4GHz, FDR, NVIDIA K20m 2,243
[Mflops/Watt]