AMD today announced that its Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors are powering "Jaguar," the first ever wholly x86-based supercomputer to achieve the petaflop performance milestone. AMD Opteron processors now help drive seven of the Top 10 supercomputer systems in the world.

The AMD Opteron processor-based and IBM PowerXCell processor-based "Roadrunner" system at Los Alamos National Labs again captures the number 1 spot on the bi-annual TOP500 Supercomputer Sites list, while the "Jaguar" supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory comes in at number 2 and is the highest performing entirely x86-based system ever on the survey. "Jaguar" is based on Cray XT4 and XT5 systems and runs on over 45,000 Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, enabling a balanced system with unrivaled x86 performance.

"Today's TOP500 Supercomputing Sites list reaffirms AMD's leadership and the tremendous performance capability that HPC customers have enjoyed for years," said Patrick Patla, vice president and general manager, Server Workstation Division, AMD. "Seven of the ten most powerful computing systems in the world now leverage the balanced platform of our Direct Connect Architecture. Our commitment to the HPC community only gets stronger with the recent launch of our 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processor which has already set new standards in HPC performance."

In addition to seven of the premium top ten, AMD Opteron processors have helped catapult 53 other global supercomputers on the TOP500 to new heights of HPC performance. Today's list highlights industries of all types that are harnessing AMD's world-class computing capability including IT service providers, financial institutions, automotive design, and researchers in energy, geology, meteorology, social sciences, astronomy and many other disciplines.

Recently, AMD announced widespread availability of its 45nm Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors, codenamed "Shanghai." These latest Quad-Core AMD Opteron processors already hold multiple HPC workload-related performance records including:

• 34 percent higher floating point throughput performance than the competition on SPECfp_rate2006 for two-socket servers using x86 processors
• 51 percent more memory bandwidth performance than the competition on STREAM benchmarks for two-socket servers
• Approximately 65 percent faster job runs than the competition on FLUENT 12 beta (ANSYS) for two-socket servers3
• More than 30 percent better performance than the competition on LSDYNA MPP971s for two-socket servers.

Additionally, readers of HPCWire this week voted "Shanghai" as one of the Top 5 New HPC Products or Technologies to Watch.