Hybrid Design
Roadrunner differs from many contemporary supercomputers in that it is a hybrid system, using two different processor architectures. Usually supercomputers only use one, since such a design is easier to design and program for. To realize the full potential of Roadrunner, all software will have to be written specially for this hybrid architecture. The hybrid design consists of dual-core Opteron server processors manufactured by AMD using the standard AMD64 architecture. Attached to each Opteron core is a PowerXCell 8i processor manufactured by IBM using Power Architecture and Cell technology. As a supercomputer, the Roadrunner is considered an Opteron cluster with Cell accelerators, as each node consists of a Cell attached to an Opteron core and the Opterons to each other.
Read more about this topic: IBM Roadrunner
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