Commercial, off-the-shelf computers based on Intel processors have moved up the ranks of the world's fastest supercomputers, with two of the systems entering the top 10 for the first time.
Of the 56 Intel-based systems in the top 500 supercomputer list announced in the United States, a computer cluster formed by the systems research group at the University of Hong Kong's department of computer sciences was ranked No 175.
Tom Burns, director for Intel's Asia-Pacific Internet solutions group, said this trend would continue over the next few years because of the potential for significant price savings offered by 'clustering' - using networked personal computers, servers or workstations as a single system to solve a complex problem.
Three years ago, there were only two such Intel-based systems in the top 500. The other eight PC clusters in the top 10 ranking are based on chips made by Advanced Micro Devices.
The 'Gideon' cluster developed by the systems research group at the University of Hong Kong consisted of a group of PCs, which collectively ran 300 two-gigahertz Pentium 4 chips, connected by a 312-port networking switch.
Intel encourages more organisations to combine the power of their desktop personal computers, workstations and servers into large clusters that can rival the performance of traditional and expensive high-performance systems, such as those from IBM, Hewlett-Packard and SGI.
