To achieve this performance, the computer would be configured with a total of 1024 racks integrating a total of 98,304 computing nodes and 6 PB of memory. The base configuration has four racks with 384 processors.
What makes this particular announcement interesting is the fact that PRIMEHPC FX10 will be using the SPARC64 IXfx processor, the successor chip to the SPARC64 VIIIfx, which is currently used in the world's fastest supercomputer, K Computer system, in Japan. However, instead of eight cores, the SPARC64 IXfx integrates 16 cores, which means that Fujitsu's 23.2 PFlops supercomputer would boast a stunning 1,572,864 processing cores - more than twice the number of cores in the K Computer's 705,024.
According to Fujitsu, a single SPARC64 IXfx processor will deliver a floating point performance of 236.5 GFlops, about 85 percent more than the SPARC64 VIIIfx, which tops out at 128 GFlops. The company said that the computation efficiency is at about 2 GFlops per watt, which indicates that individual processors will run at about 115 watt at 1.85 GHz.
In comparison, IBM will use a 16-core PowerPC A2 processor in the 20 PFlops Sequoia system which will be installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 2012. IBM said that its A2 processor will consume only 30 watts; however, since the company states that the 98,304 computing nodes A2 system will reach just about 20 Flops, we would assume that the A2 is not quite as powerful as the SPARC64 IXfx.
