"Fastest computer on earth" is a very interesting topic, because every time I think that fastest computer available on this planet about two decades ago was slower than my desktop computer I have now I get chills down my spine. The most interesting part is that after I found out about the new supercomputer holding the crown, I got some serious chills, because I don't know if I'll ever have that amount of processing power on my desk, and I am not planning to leave this world anytime soon. Now, let's leave my thoughts aside and see some of the technical specifications of the fastest computer on earth, shall we?


Pictured above, the IBM Roadrunner is currently the fastest computer on earth, and it got this label earlier this week, when it reached the performance level it was designed for, exactly 1.026 petaflops! This computer was built for the US Department of Energy, and it consists of almost 6,500 AMD Opteron dual core processors and almost 13,000 IBM PowerXCell 8i CPUs, all packed in TriBlades that are connected by Infiniband.

Using the Red Hat Enterprise Linux OS, the Roadrunner covers almost 12,000 square feet (1,100 square meters), and each of the TriBlades I mentioned above has four Opteron cores, four PowerXCell 8i CPUs, 16 GB Opteron and 16 GB Cell RAM. Not that impressive, after all... but if we go up, we'll end up with the final cluster, having the following configuration:

- 6,480 dual-core Opterons with 51.8 TB RAM (in 3,240 LS21 blades)
- 12,960 Cell cores with 51.8 TB RAM (in 6,480 QS22 blades)
- 216 System x3655 I/O nodes
- 26 288-port ISR2012 Infiniband 4x DDR switches
- 296 racks

Say whaaat? Now, that's what I can really call a supercomputer! In fact, it's the fastest computer on earth, so this is the ultimate computing machine, not "just another IBM mainframe."

A lot of people avoid liquid cooling systems for PCs because they are afraid of leaks, consider them too expensive, or simply don't need such a thing as "liquid cooling," but this is slowly moving from the enthusiast area to mainstream. Do you want a proof? What if I say that IBM uses water cooling in its labs on a regular basis, and they don't do it just for fun, because a prototype that integrates a whole new way of cooling 3D chips using liquids has just been shown to the world!


What they have in mind is to have 3D chip stacks, putting chips and memory on a board on top of one another, instead of placing them side by side. Why? To fill the space between the layers with cooling liquid, of course!

Thomas Brunschwiler, project leader at IBM’s Zurich research laboratory, said "As we package chips on top of each other to significantly speed a processor’s capability to process data, we have found that conventional coolers attached to the back of a chip don’t scale. In order to exploit the potential of high-performance 3D chip stacking, we need interlayer cooling. Until now, nobody has demonstrated viable solutions to this problem."

I know it may sound a bit out of this world, but if we think about the fact that the IBM team managed to pipe water into cooling structure as thin as human hair (50 microns), it all starts to make sense. By using the superior thermophysical qualities of water, they reached 180W/sq cm per layer for a 4sq cm stack!

Unfortunately, this is only a lab experiment for now, and since the results were presented at the IEEE ITherm conference in Orlando, Florida, in a paper called "Forced convective interlayer cooling in vertically integrated packages," we're not going to see this solution inside our computers in the near future, but it's good to know such a technology is not that far either...

Summer is here and, just like us, our computers are starting to feel the heat. In order to keep things running at regular temperatures, we use all sorts of air and liquid-based coolers. Many new motherboards even come with special radiators installed on the northbridge and southbridge and experienced PC users often change the stock coolers o their CPU and video cards, opting for improved solutions that let them overclock the components.

But what if you got enough money to build the FASTRA system? This system sure gets hot, even with water-coolers installed all over it, not to mention it would get sizzling hot inside an average case during the summer. Extreme systems call for extreme measures like Thermalright’s new PC case that features a host of coolers and radiators to dissipate tremendous amounts of heat.

Thermalright HSC-101 case is said to dissipate up to 150 watts of heat per side. One side of the case is for the processor while the other side is for the graphics card and other components. The company is still deciding what water blocks, tubing and other parts to include with the case. The case wase spotted at Computex 2008, but there was no specified price or availability date.

Additionally, Thermalright also impressed visitors with their latest six-fan case. The case features three huge fans in the front plus three others in the back. To fit all these coolers, Thermalright had to move the place where the motherboard is placed a few inches away from the back. Moreover, extender cables connect the i/o ports on the back of the motherboard to ports inside the case. Again, no info on price and availability with this one.

Everybody seems to love Intel these days, except AMD, since Intel processors sell like crazy, no matter if the buyers are on a budget, or big spenders. Obviously, there are still plenty AMD customers around, too, some of them on a budget, and others simply AMD lovers to the end. South Korea's competition regulator doesn't seem to love anyone, since they are only trying to keep the market fair to everyone, so this time they fined Intel. No love, no hate, just a fine for Intel's behaviour, as we're going to see right away...


The story is very simple - Intel offered rebates to South Korean computer companies, undercutting its direct competitor, AMD. Well, don't say this is wrong or right - it's the opinion of the Korean Fair Trade Commission, and I don't have anything against it, unlike Intel.

The fine is as large as 26bn won ($25.4/£13 million), and Intel spokesman Nick Jacobs says its company "did not use rebates in an anticompetitive fashion." Of course. And I saw a pig fly today. Did you see pigs flying, too?

A couple of days ago I saw some report saying that Blu-ray is not going to get adopted that soon, while another one said DVDs are getting closer and closer to their doom. All this seems contradictory, but that’s how some things turn out in the IT industry. Japan looks to be one of the few countries that happily adopted the BDs, and this could be considered a fair start. Of course, there is enough potential for movie players, PCs and consoles, and LG realized that the PC market could be the next one to extensively embrace the Blu-ray standard. That’s why LG updates its BD optical drives, and just recently they’ve presented their new line-up.

Integrating the fastest Blu-ray reading and writing speed of 6x, the new models dubbed BE06, GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L also feature SecurDisc capabilities that offer data protection and content access control on all current optical formats. Moreover, LG didn’t forget to include its popular LightScribe technology.

Here are the most important tech specs that come witht the new line-up:

• Compatibility with all BD, DVD and CD formats
• 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE read compatible
• DVD+RW/-RW recording speed to 16x recording
• 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE read compatible
• 6x BD-R/2x BD-RE read and write compatible (GBW-H20L)
• 16x DVD+RW/-RW recording speed (GBW-H20L)
• Up to 40X CDRW recording speeds

The BE06, GBC-H20L and GBW-H20L will retail for $379.95, $199.95 and $279.95, respectively, but I can’t understand the price difference. SecurDisc and LightScribe might not be present in each of these. Additionally, I see the HD-DVD logo on the pictured unit and that makes me think the pricier models support this format as well. Anyhow, things are getting cheaper and I’m sure BDs will soon become standard with desktop PCs.