IBM Roadrunner

IBM Roadrunner

Roadrunner is a supercomputer built by IBM at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, USA. The US$133-million Roadrunner is designed for a peak performance of 1.7 petaflops, achieving 1.026 on May 25, 2008 to become the world's first TOP500 Linpack sustained 1.0 petaflops system. It is a one-of-a-kind supercomputer, built from off the shelf parts, with many novel design features.

In November 2008, it reached a top performance of 1.456 petaflops, retaining its top spot in the TOP500 list. It was also the fourth-most energy-efficient supercomputer in the world on the Supermicro Green500 list, with an operational rate of 444.94 megaflops per watt of power used. The hybrid Roadrunner design was then reused for several other energy efficient supercomputers.