text: Subscriber Content Read Preview Beijing, U.S. Unveil New Korean Sanctions 
   
   The U.S. and China introduced a new round of sanctions against North Korea at the United Nations that the U.S. said would significantly impede the development of Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs, in response to its test last month of an atomic bomb. ||||| Image caption The IBM team behind the world's fastest computer. 
   
   IBM's Sequoia has taken the top spot on the list of the world's fastest supercomputers for the US. 
   
   The newly installed system trumped Japan's K Computer made by Fujitsu which fell to second place. 
   
   It is the first time the US can claim pole position since it was beaten by China two years ago. 
   
   Sequoia will be used to carry out simulations to help extend the life of aging nuclear weapons, avoiding the need for real-world underground tests. 
   
   It is installed at the US Department of Energy's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. 
   
   "While Sequoia may be the fastest, the underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation's nuclear deterrent," said National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) administrator Thomas D'Agostino. 
   
   "Sequoia also represents continued American leadership in high performance computing." 
   
   Adding processors 
   
   The computers were ranked according to a test known as the Linpack Benchmark which gives each computer a petaflop/s score (quadrillion floating-point operations per second). 
   
   Sequoia tested at 16.32 petaflop/s, compared to K Computer's 10.51 petaflop/s. 
   
   To make the figure more understandable, IBM said Sequoia was capable of calculating in one hour what otherwise would have taken 6.7 billion people using hand calculators 320 years to complete if they had worked non-stop. 
   
   Although the US's efforts helped secure it the lead, its overall tally of three computers in the top 10 was worse than six months ago when it had five. 
   
   China and Germany both have two supercomputers, while Japan, France and Italy have one. 
   
   But IBM proved to be the leading manufacturer claiming five out of the top 10 spots. 
   
   David Turek, vice president of deep computing at the firm, told the BBC his company had been preparing to retake the top spot for two years. 
   
   "Substantial planning went into this. We knew the day would come." 
   
   Sequoia is 1.55 times faster than the Fujitsu model, and uses over 1.5 million processor cores. 
   
   In comparison the Japanese model has less than half the number of CPUs (central processing units). 
   
   Energy efficient 
   
   The IBM supercomputer is also more energy efficient than the Fujitsu model. 
   
   Sequoia consumes 7.9 megawatts compared to the K computer which uses 12.6 megawatts. 
   
   Mr Turek described Sequoia as the "pinnacle of energy efficiency" and said the reaction had been "very enthusiastic." 
   
   "Government laboratories in Europe have already expressed interest," he said. 
   
   Image caption CM-5/1024 designed by Thinking Machines was the first supercomputer on the list. 
   
   The list is published every six months by German Professor Hans Meuer and US-based Professor Jack Dongarra. 
   
   Prof Dongarra told the BBC it was unlikely that another manufacturer would overtake IBM in the next year. 
   
   "Sequoia is very impressive," he said. 
   
   273,930 times faster 
   
   The first computer to take the top position on the list was the CM-5/1024 in 1993, designed by Thinking Machines. 
   
   According to Prof Dongarra, Sequoia is 273,930 times faster. 
   
   "A calculation that took three full days to compute on the Thinking Machines in 1993 today can be done in less than one second on the Sequoia," he said. ||||| Show full PR text 
   
   NNSA's Sequoia Supercomputer Ranked as World's Fastest 
   
   Supercomputer at Lawrence Livermore National Lab passes 16 petaflops 
   
   WASHINGTON, D.C. – The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) today announced that a supercomputer called Sequoia at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) was ranked the world's most powerful computing system. 
   
   Clocking in at 16.32 sustained petaflops (quadrillion floating point operations per second), Sequoia earned the number one ranking on the industry standard Top500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers released Monday, June 18, at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC12) in Hamburg, Germany. Sequoia was built for NNSA by IBM. 
   
   A 96-rack IBM Blue Gene/Q system, Sequoia will enable simulations that explore phenomena at a level of detail never before possible. Sequoia is dedicated to NNSA's Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program for stewardship of the nation's nuclear weapons stockpile, a joint effort from LLNL, Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. 
   
   "Computing platforms like Sequoia help the United States keep its nuclear stockpile safe, secure, and effective without the need for underground testing," said NNSA Administrator Thomas D'Agostino. "While Sequoia may be the fastest, the underlying computing capabilities it provides give us increased confidence in the nation's nuclear deterrent as the weapons stockpile changes under treaty agreements, a critical part of President Obama's nuclear security agenda. Sequoia also represents continued American leadership in high performance computing, key to the technology innovation that drives high-quality jobs and economic prosperity." 
   
   "Sequoia will provide a more complete understanding of weapons performance, notably hydrodynamics and properties of materials at extreme pressures and temperatures. In particular, the system will enable suites of highly resolved uncertainty quantification calculations to support the effort to extend the life of aging weapons systems; what we call a life extension program (LEP)," said Bob Meisner, NNSA director of the ASC program. 
   
   Uncertainty quantification, or "UQ," is the quantitative characterization and reduction of uncertainty in computer applications through running very large suites of calculations to characterize the effects of minor differences in the systems. Sources of uncertainty are rife in the natural sciences and engineering. UQ uses statistical methods to determine likely outcomes. 
   
   The machine will be an important tool used to support stockpile life extension programs, including the B61 and the W78. By reducing the time required for these studies, total costs are also reduced. In addition, the machine is expected to enhance NNSA's ability to sustain the stockpile by resolving any significant findings in weapons systems, bringing greater power to the annual assessment of the stockpile, and anticipating and avoiding future problems that inevitably result from aging. All of this helps to ensure that the nation will never have to return to nuclear explosive testing. 
   
   Supercomputers such as Sequoia have allowed the U.S. to have confidence in its nuclear weapons stockpile over the 20 years since nuclear testing ended in 1992. The insight that comes from supercomputing simulations is also vital to addressing nonproliferation and counterterrorism issues as well as informing other national security decisions such as nuclear weapon policy and treaty agreements. 
   
   "Sequoia is an exciting achievement for the POWER architecture, not just for its speed and energy efficiency, but also for the important and complex work it can support to safeguard the nation's nuclear stockpile," said Colin Parris, General Manager IBM Power Systems. "With supercomputers capable of 16 sustained petaflops, our ability to affect strategic change in areas like life sciences, public safety, energy and transportation that make our world smarter is greater than ever. The improvements in affordability, performance, efficiency and size that Sequoia delivers will also enable a broader set of commercial customers to implement HPC for their competitive advantage." 
   
   The NNSA/LLNL/IBM partnership has produced six HPC systems that have been ranked among the world's most powerful computers including: The Accelerated Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI) Blue Pacific; ASCI White; the Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) Purple; Blue Gene/L; Blue Gene/P; and Blue Gene/Q, Sequoia. ASCI White, Blue Gene/L and now Sequoia all attained a number one ranking on the Top500 list. 
   
   Sequoia is primarily water cooled and consists of 96 racks; 98,304 compute nodes; 1.6 million cores; and 1.6 petabytes of memory. Though orders of magnitude more powerful than such predecessor systems as ASC Purple and Blue Gene/L, Sequoia will be roughly 90 times more power efficient than Purple and about eight times more than BG/L relative to the peak speeds of these systems.
target: – America can once again boast that it is home to the world's fastest supercomputer. IBM's Sequoia system knocked Japan's K Computer into second place after clocking in at a staggering 16.32 "petaflops"—that's 16 quadrillion calculations per second, reports the Wall Street Journal. The supercomputer—which takes up 96 racks, each bigger than a fridge, at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California—can compute in one hour what it would take everybody in the world 320 years working non-stop using hand calculators to compute, the BBC notes. This is the first time an American computer has taken top spot since 2009, and Sequoia also won praise for energy efficiency: It consumes 7.9 megawatts compared to the K Computer's 12.6 megawatts. The Department of Energy will use Sequoia to run simulations designed to help extend the life of aging nuclear weapons, eliminating the need in these cases to run underground nuclear tests. Quips Engadget's Sean Buckley, "More computers, less explosions. We can't think of a better thing to do with 98,304 compute nodes, 1.6 million cores, and 1.6 petabytes of memory spread across 96 racks—can you?"