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from the becha-they-don't-run-systemd dept.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/almost-all-the-worlds-fastest-supercomputers-run-linux/
Other than systems running Linux, there are two Chinese supercomputers running IBM AIX, a Unix variant. This pair, tied at 386 and 387, may not be long for the list. That's because supercomputers are growing ever faster.
[...] When the first TOP500 supercomputer list was compiled in June 1993, Linux was just gathering steam. Since 1998 when it first appeared on the list, Linux has consistently dominated the top 10. Since June 2010, Linux has run 90 percent of the world's fastest computers.
Before Linux jumped ahead, Unix was supercomputing's top dog. Since 2003, the top operating system has flipped from being 96 percent Unix to being 96 percent Linux. By 2004, Linux had taken over the lead and has yet to surrender it.
By 2017, Linux may have eliminated all its competition.
[Continues...]
takyon: There are some new entrants to the top 10 of the TOP500 list:
The top of the list did receive a mild shakeup with two new systems in the top ten. The Cori supercomputer, a Cray XC40 system installed at Berkeley Lab's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC), slipped into the number 5 slot with a Linpack rating of 14.0 petaflops. Right behind it at number 6 is the new Oakforest-PACS supercomputer, a Fujitsu PRIMERGY CX1640 M1 cluster, which recorded a Linpack mark of 13.6 petaflops. Oakforest-PACS is up and running at Japan's Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing (JCAHPC). Both machines owe their computing prowess to the Intel "Knights Landing" Xeon Phi 7250, a 68-core processor that delivers 3 peak teraflops of performance.
The addition of Cori and Oakforest-PACS pushed every system below them a couple of notches down, with the exception of Piz Daint, a Cray supercomputer installed at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). It maintained its spot at number 8 as a result of a massive 3.5 petaflop upgrade, courtesy of newly installed NVIDIA P100 Tesla GPUs. Piz Daint also has the honor of being the second most energy-efficient supercomputer in the TOP500, with a rating of 7.45 gigaflops/watt. It is topped by NVIDIA's in-house DGX SATURNV system, the only other system on the list equipped with the new P100 GPUs. It is a 3.3-petaflop cluster of DGX-1 servers that delivers 9.46 gigaflops/watt. To offer some perspective here, the nominal goal for the first exascale systems is 50 gigaflops/watt.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 17 2016, @01:58PM
It's a good point. Linux is everywhere but where it should be, or rather needs to be, on the desktop.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday November 17 2016, @04:35PM
I believe, I want to believe, that Linux will power the desktop some day. It is quite remarkable that the same OS can run embedded boards with limp CPUs running at 200 MHz in Ks of memory and also on gigantic super-duper computers with multiple cores in gigabytes of memory, with GPUs and complicated subsystems.
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Thursday November 17 2016, @09:31PM
The desktop is on the decline and walled garden mobile world is the new holy cash cow. Though, that is ironically why Linux could come to rule the desktop. Once mobile largely replaces desktops, will Microsoft or Apple care about them anymore? If they quit the desktop OS market, Linux can quietly take over.