The latest rankings of the world’s supercomputers have been announced by TOP500 for the month of November 2023. The reigning champion, Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s (ORNL) Frontier system, holds onto the top spot for the fourth consecutive time with a performance of 1.194 EFlop/s. Powered by the AMD EPYC 64C CPU, AMD Instinct MI250x accelerator, and HPE Cray EX235a solution, Frontier continues to showcase its unparalleled capabilities.
However, the significant changes in this round of rankings come from the new entrants at the second and third positions. Argonne Leadership Computing Facility’s Aurora system debuts at number two with a performance of 585.34 PFlop/s. Although only half complete, Aurora is expected to reach a staggering 2 EFlop/s once fully operational, surpassing Frontier and clinching the top spot. The technical specifications of Aurora include a combination of Intel’s Xeon CPU Max Series, Intel Data Center GPU Max Series, and the expertise of the HPE Cray EX team.
Taking the third spot is Microsoft’s machine named Eagle. With a performance of 561 Pflop/s, Eagle utilizes the Intel Xeon Platinum 8480C CPU and NVIDIA H100 GPU. It serves as Microsoft’s cloud solution for Azure.
The remaining positions in the top 10 are mostly occupied by previously charted supercomputers, except for the newcomers at ranks 8 and 9. These include:
– Former champion Fugaku from Japan, ranking at number four with a performance of 442 Pflop/s.
– LUMI from Finland, upgraded to a performance of 380 Pflop/s, using the HPE Cray EX system.
– Leonardo from Italy, securing the sixth spot with a performance of 238.7 Pflop/s, powered by Altos’ machine solution.
– IBM Summit, a former global champion, ranks seventh with a performance of 148.8 Pflop/s, relying on POWER9 CPUs.
– MareNostrum 5 ACC from Spain, situated in Barcelona, holds the eighth position with a performance of 183.2 Pflop/s, utilizing Altos’ system.
– Eos, developed by NVIDIA, seizes the ninth spot with a performance of 121.4 Pflop/s, combining Xeon 8480C CPUs and H100 GPUs in the DGX SuperPOD solution.
– Sierra from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory rounds up the top 10 with a performance of 94.6 Pflop/s.
If we examine the distribution of CPUs among the top 10 supercomputers, Intel contributes 5 machines, AMD contributes 2 machines, and IBM contributes 2 machines (with Fugaku being the sole Fujitsu CPU-based system).
In terms of market share within the TOP500, the United States retains its leading position with 161 systems (up from 150 previously), followed by China with 104 systems (down from 134).
TLDR: Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Frontier remains the reigning champion in the TOP500 supercomputer rankings for November 2023. Aurora from Argonne Leadership Computing Facility is a promising newcomer at number two, expected to surpass Frontier once fully operational. Microsoft’s Eagle ranks third. The majority of the top 10 supercomputers consist of previously listed systems, with notable newcomers in positions 8 and 9. The United States leads in market share, followed by China, in the rankings provided by TOP500.
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