Homework: Top 500

General Info

• http://www.top500.org• A list of 500 most powerful

computing systems• Your task is to take a look at them

and compare them• This homework is compulsory and

will be graded• Deadline 2.10

Guidelines

• Select at least 3 architectures (Not just three systems, but three different types)

• Describe charasteristics separately• Use / Draw pictures / tables• References

Introductory words

• Who, why, what• Marketing

– #1 in the list– Flops– # of CPUs

Hardware

• Architecture– DSM, MPP, COW, SMP, PVP, …

• Network– Switch, tree, bus, mesh, …

• Processors– Intel PC, Alpha, Vector / Scalar, 32/64 bit

Software

• OS• Middleware

– Messaging libraries, job queuing systems, checkpointing, file systems

• Applications– WMD design, weather forecast…

How to compare

• $ vs flops, # cpus vs flops, architectures vs flops

• Network speeds, network scalability• Custom or commodity hardware• …

Grading

• Depth of comparison– Including own opinions!

• Usage of other sources– Google (Example: Network is fat tree. A

fat tree is a tree that has eaten too much)– Text books / theory– Papers

• Structure of the text– Including general appearance