Reports from Japan say that a new supercomputer processor has taken the crown of world's fastest by not just beating, but obliterating the old record.
Fujitsu's eight-core SPARC64 VIIIfx Venus CPU was clocked at 128 billion computations per second, which destroyed the previous Intel-held record by a factor of 2.5.
Energy efficient
The new processor is both smaller and more energy-efficient than its predecessors thanks to smaller core components.
The 128-gigaflops chip is based on 45nm circuitry, compared to Intel's 90nm processes on the Itanium 2 chips that had held the record.
However, the US firm says it is also moving to 45nm for the next Itanium, so Fujitsu appears to have a fight on its hands in the brewing supercomputer war.
Update: Looks like we have some debate in the comments below, partly because the Xbitlabs source appears to be down, thereby making corroborating data a little thin on the ground.
Suffice it to say, we've given you what detail we can gather on a weekend and there'll be scope to return to the Venus CPU when Fujitsu spills all the beans in future.
Your comments (16) Click to add a new comment
mrt731
July 14th
16. And they use Cell Processors from the PS3 in the RoadRunner Super Computer so don't even say that the 360 has more advanced technology you idiot
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mrt731
July 1st
15. sgtheadhole is an idiot...the CPU in the PS# does not compare with the speed of a normal cpu...A Playstation 3 uses technology that is superior to that of the Xbox 360. The Cell processor used in the playstation has 6 cores and your precious Xbox 360 has only 3. I have both an Xbox 360 and a Playstation 3 so before you go anointing the Xbox 360 has the better gaming console with better technology you should get your f***ing facts straight. O and my first 360 crapped out after 3 days and I have never had a problem with my PS3...Thank You Sony
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_%28microprocessor%29
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sgtheadhole
June 21st
14. Thats TOTAL ********, the PS3's Cell processor isnt 1Tflop in performance, it only has 1 PowerPC IBM Core @ 3.2Ghz, with 7 "SPE's" each at 3.2Ghz also, and these "SPE's" are the same as unified shader cores you find in graphics cards today, and there is no way that those few things can have 1TeraFlops performance, its all Sony marketing ********, none of the consoles are next gen, the PS3 uses older tech than the xbox 360.
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nemy
May 18th
13. This article is incorrect, the Cell Processor is the current fastest microprocessor in the world at 1 TerraFLOPS. With the IBM Roadrunner being the fastest supercomputer running at 1.71 PetaFLOPS using over 12k of them, with 6 thousand AMD Opteron's.
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funkygibbin
May 17th
12. Mahatmacoat - have you actually *DONE* any research, or are you simply saying that 'it's a nice little article' and making urbane comments for fun??
Not one of your comments has attempted to add anything of value to the original post - nothing that indicates why it's the 'worlds fastest processor', or why in reality - it's not.
I challenge you to *RESEARCH* the information in the article as well as other similar processors - then write a succinct response that explains why this new CPU is in fact the world's fastest. Much of the information that you'd need would already be in the links I've provided. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes.
Include references (as I have done) to well-respected sources for your information.
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I will be more than happy to acknowledge your well-researched defence of your position - if it is accurate.
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Also: digitalworldtokyo - which Mahatmacoat indicates is a 'nice little site with plenty of J-tech insights' below has virtually all posts done by three people: Mark Weitzman, Yoshi Suzuki and J Mark Lytle.
I am wondering if one of these three is mahatacoat, in which case this may be a case of astroturfing.
I have no affiliations with Intel, AMD, NVidia or IBM (I don't work for them, nor have I).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
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mahatmacoat
May 17th
11. I guess that means everyone covering this pre-release CPU is wrong except you, then!
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