IBM Scalable POWERparallel

Scalable POWERparallel (SP) is a series of supercomputers from IBM. SP systems were part of the IBM RISC System/6000 (RS/6000) family, and were also called the RS/6000 SP. The first model, the SP1, was introduced in February 1993, and new models were introduced throughout the 1990s until the RS/6000 was succeeded by eServer pSeries in October 2000. The SP is a distributed memory system, consisting of multiple RS/6000-based nodes interconnected by an IBM-proprietary switch called the High Performance Switch (HPS). The nodes are clustered using software called PSSP, which is mainly written in Perl.

IBM Scalable POWERparallel

Also known as	IBM RS/6000 SP
Developer	IBM
Type	Supercomputer platform
Release date	Feb 1993 (Feb 1993)
Discontinued	Oct 2000 (Oct 2000)
CPU	IBM POWER PowerPC
Successor	IBM Blue Gene

Computer scientist Marc Snir was awarded the Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for his contributions to supercomputing, which included his work on the SP.^[1]

Notable systems

• The Cornell Theory Center had a 512-node system that was ranked as the sixth fastest supercomputer in the world by the November 1995 edition of the Top500 List. From a peak performance of 136.19 GFLOPS, it obtained 88.40 GFLOPS on the LINPACK benchmark.^[2]
• Deep Blue, the first computer to win a chess game against a reigning world champion in a match with Garry Kasparov in 1996.
• ASCI Blue Pacific is a PowerPC 604-based system with a peak performance of 3.9 TFLOPS. It was installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1998 as part of the Advanced Strategic Computing Initiative (ASCI).
• ASCI White is a 512-node system with a peak performance of 12.3 TFLOPS. It was installed at the LLNL in 2001 as part of ASCI, and was ranked #1 in the Top500 List from November 2000 to November 2001.
• Seaborg, at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, was ranked as the fifth fastest supercomputer in the world when it debuted in the June 2003 edition of the Top500 List. From a peak performance of 9.98 TFLOPS, it obtained 7.30 TFLOPS on the LINPACK benchmark.^[3]

Nodes

POWER1-based

Model	# of CPUs	CPU	CPU MHz	Cache	Memory	Introduced	Discontinued
SP1	1	POWER1++	62.5	None	64 to 256 MB	1993-02-02	1994-12-16

POWER2-based

Model	# of CPUs	CPU	CPU MHz	L2 Cache	Memory	Introduced	Discontinued
Thin Node	1	POWER2	66	?	64 to 512 MB	1994-04-06[4]	1996-07-26[5]
Thin Node 2				?	64 to 512 MB	1995-02-07[6]	1997-06-27[7]
Wide Node				?	64 MB to 2 GB	1994-04-06[4]	1996-07-26[5]
77MHz Wide Node			77	?	64 MB to 2 GB	1995-08-22[8]	1997-06-27[7]

PowerPC 604-based

Model	# of CPUs	CPU	CPU MHz	Cache	Memory	Introduced	Discontinued
High 1	2, 4, 6, 8	PowerPC 604	112	?	?	1996-07-23	1998-01-08
High 2		PowerPC 604e	200	?	?	1997-08-26	1998-04-21
332 Thin	2, 4		332	?	?	1998-04-21	2000-12-29
332 Wide				?	?

P2SC-based

Model	# of CPUs	CPU	CPU MHz	Cache	Memory	Introduced	Discontinued
160 Thin	1	P2SC	160	?	?	1997-10-06	1998-04-21
Thin P2SC			120	?	?	1996-10-08
Wide P2SC			135	?	?

POWER3-based

Model	# of CPUs	CPU	CPU MHz	L2 Cache	Memory	Introduced	Discontinued
POWER3 High	2, 4, 6, 8	POWER3	222	?	?	1999-09-13	2000-12-29
POWER3 High		POWER3-II	375	?	?	2000-07-18	2002-12-27
POWER3 Thin	1, 2	POWER3	200	?	?	1999-09-01	2000-06-30
POWER3 Thin		POWER3-II	375	?	?	2000-02-07	2003-04-08
POWER3 Thin			450	?	?	2002-01-22
POWER3 Wide	1, 2	POWER3	200	?	?	1999-02-01	2000-06-30
POWER3 Wide	2, 4	POWER3-II	375	?	?	2000-02-07	2003-04-08
POWER3 Wide	2, 4		450	?	?	2002-01-22

See also

• Blue Gene

References

1. "Marc Snir: 2013 Seymour Cray Award Recipient". IEEE Computer Society. Archived from the original on 2014-03-26.
2. "SP2/512". TOP500 Supercomputer Sites. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
3. "Seaborg - SP Power3 375 MHz 16 way". TOP500 Supercomputer Sites. Retrieved 2 January 2019.
4. IBM Announcement Letter ZG94-0159: IBM Scalable POWERparallel Systems 9076 SP2 and Enhancements for SP1
5. IBM Announcement 996-181: Hardware Withdrawal: RISC System/6000 SP POWERquery and Selected Models and Features -- Replacements Available
6. IBM Announcement Letter ZG95-0145: 9076 POWERparallel SP2 Models 204, 304, 3B4, and 404
7. IBM Announcement Letter 997-078: Hardware Withdrawal: Selected RS/6000 Models and Features -- Replacements Available
8. IBM Announcement Letter ZG95-0364: RISC SYSTEM/6000 SP 77MHz Wide Models, 2AX Models, and Enhancements

External links

• Architectural overview