Fujitsu Releases 128 GigaFLOP "Venus" Processor for Supercomputers
Posted 05/15/09 at 08:38:03 AM by Paul Lilly
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Fujitsu this week laid a humdinger on Intel by unveiling the world's fastest CPU. The new chip is thought to be about 2.5 times faster than anything Intel has in its lineup, while also consuming two-thirds less power.
You can put any grandiose ideas of picking one up and setting new benchmarking records to rest, as the 'Venus' chip, or otherwise known as the SPARC64 VIIIfx, is designed for supercomputers. As such, Fujitsu claims the new CPU can process a mind boggling 128 billion computations per second, making Fujitsu the first Japanese firm in a decade to wear the raw CPU performance crown.
Built on a 45nm manufacturing process, Venus comes with eight cores and an integrated memory controller spread across two square centimeters. Fujitsu says it will take several years to come up with practical applications for the new chip, but that it could see use in pharmaceutical research, astronomy, weather prediction, scientific researching, and Folding@Home while running Crysis (we may have added the last two on our own).
Image Credit: PC Watch
"....but that it could see
Submitted by Skillz_n_Magic on Sat, 05/16/2009 - 9:16am
"....it could see use in pharmaceutical research, astronomy, weather prediction, scientific researching"
But then we thought.. Hey! Let's use it for games!
But can it fold?
Submitted by MAXPCreader07 on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 8:44pm
But can it fold?
Submitted by darkliquids on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 5:59pm
i swear to god the japanese have mechas ready for full world overtake, and if they'll lose they will send reinforcements from their military base on the moon
Submitted by Digital-Storm on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 7:44am
Too bad its Gigantic. This will lead to less chips per waffer, which will in turn, increase the cost by aproxxamatly 9001%. Its over 9000! Percent.
Submitted by EarthBoundMisfit on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 7:38am
Registered Linux User #404122 Microsoft has encountered a critical system error and must now shut down. Better get Bill Gate$ on the phone for this one.......
who cares if its RISC or not? Its half as fast as a processor thats been out for years now.
It's a RISC chip so it
Submitted by Blaze589 on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 7:31am
It's a RISC chip so it doesn't bode well for multimedia applications or gaming for that matter.
Submitted by Defiant on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 7:23am
"128 billion computations per second" - Would that not make it 128 GHz? I'll take a socket 1366 version please!!
Submitted by AndyYankee17 on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 8:55am
no, there is (virtually) no correlation between FLOPS (floating point operations per second) and the clock speed, it's essentially like relating engine RPM to horsepower, yeah they're sorta related but not really comparable. just ask all the 3.8 GHz P4 owners
Submitted by EarthBoundMisfit on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 7:23am
Registered Linux User #404122 Microsoft has encountered a critical system error and must now shut down. Better get Bill Gate$ on the phone for this one.......
ok...good job.
You just made a processor thats HALF as fast as IBM, Sony, and Toshiba's Cell Processor...
I pulled this bit from
http://www.blachford.info/computer/Cell/Cell1_v2.html
"An individual Cell is one hell of a powerful processor, they have a theoretical computing capability of 256 GFLOPS (Billion Floating Point Operations per Second) [GFLOPS] at 4GHz. In the computing world quoted figures (bandwidth, processing, throughput) are often theoretical maximums and rarely if ever met in real life. Cell may be unusual in that given the right type of problem they may actually be able to get close to their maximum computational figure."Glenn Condrey
Submitted by Kaasiim on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 10:26am
I could very easily be mistaken, but last I heard, nobody used the cell processor.
not even the playstation 3, oh yeah, its in there, but so is a nvidia chip and I heard that all of the games for the ps3 are designed to run on the nvidia chip. Which was also "one" of the reasons why most of the games werent that impressive.However, its been a while since i did any homework on console tech, so things may have changed and I just didnt notice.
Submitted by almax on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 6:50am
"Apparently it will take several years for Fujitsu to come up with practical applications...."
I picture some guys in the design phase of this project thinking,
"You know, if we completely set aside any concerns of practical use. We can get this thing up to 128 GigaFlops"
When is retail
Submitted by kleinkinstein on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 6:47am
When is retail availability? :)
Submitted by skhills on Fri, 05/15/2009 - 1:46pm
Probably around the same time you come up with $20Gs to burn.
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