Tech News

Frontier Supercomputer Retains Lead on TOP500 List

The Frontier system (https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/frontier/) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) is the top-performing supercomputer in the world, according to the recently released 60th edition of the TOP500 list (https://www.top500.org/news/ornls-exaflop-machine-frontier-keeps-top-spot-new-competitor-leonardo-breaks-the-top10/).

Frontier is the first U.S. supercomputing system with a performance exceeding one EFlop/s, the report says. "Frontier is the clear winner of the race to exascale (https://www.fosslife.org/power-exascale-computing), and it will require a lot of work and innovation to knock it from the top spot."

The Top 5

• Frontier – The HPE Cray EX system is installed at ORNL in Tennessee, "where it is operated for the Department of Energy (DOE). It currently has achieved 1.102 EFlop/s using 8,730,112 cores," the report says.
• Fugaku – The Fugaku system installed at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan remains at #2 with an HPL score of 0.442 EFlop/s.
• LUMI – This HPE Cray EX system at the EuroHPC center at CSC in Finland underwent a major upgrade to hold on to the #3 spot, with a score of 0.309 EFlop/s.
• Leonardo – At #4, the new Leonardo system installed at EuroHPC/CINECA in Bologna, Italy scored 0.174 EFlop/s with 1,463,616 cores.
• Summit – This IBM-built system, also at ORNL, rounds out the top five with a score of 148.8 PFlop/s on the HPL benchmark.

NetApp BlueXP Released

NetApp has announced general availability of BlueXP, "a unified control plane delivering a simple hybrid multi-cloud experience for storage and data services across on-premises and cloud environments."

BlueXP (https://www.netapp.com/bluexp/), which integrates all of NetApp's on-premises storage offerings into a single console, is part of the company's evolved cloud (https://www.netapp.com/blog/cloud-evolution-better-hybrid-multicloud-experience/) approach in which "cloud is fully integrated into your architecture and operations." NetApp BlueXP capabilities include:

• Unified storage management
• AIOps-driven health
• Cyber resilience
• Governance at a glance
• Seamless mobility

According to the announcement (https://www.netapp.com/newsroom/press-releases/news-rel-20221101-530154/), BlueXP is also the preferred method to manage NetApp's ONTAP data management software. And, the most recent release of ONTAP (https://www.netapp.com/blog/new-ontap-innovations-november2022/) features major changes, such as tamper-proof snapshots, reduced ransomware exposure, and hardened security incorporating Zero Trust principles.