IBM Achieves Performance Breakthrough in Massive Computer Networks

IBM Achieves Performance Breakthrough in Massive Computer Networks

IBM today announced that it has scored a fundamental performance breakthrough in the way that massive computer networks access and share information. Code-named “Project Fastball,” the historic results were achieved on the ASC Purple supercomputer — the third most powerful supercomputer in the world.(1) ASC Purple, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a National Nuclear Security Administration computing system designed by IBM.

The breakthrough is expected to drive the development of data-intensive applications in areas including customized medicine, online gaming, entertainment, and homeland security, as well as in traditional high performance computing applications.

IBM and LLNL demonstrated over 102 gigabytes per second of sustained read and write performance to a single file using specialized software that manages the transfer of information between thousands of processors and thousands of disk storage devices. The world record performance was achieved using 416 individual storage controllers combined with 104 Power-based eServer p575 nodes.

Read the complete Press Release