Linux powers world’s most powerful computers

Linux, the open source operating system that underpins LetsHost’s Complete Irish Hosting Plan, is the operating system of choice for the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

The telling statistic comes from a list of the “Top 500” most powerful computers in the world that was released at the International Supercomputing Conference in Hamburg, Germany this week.

An impressive 405 of the 500 most powerful computers in the world run on Linux, which has a phenomenal 81% of the supercomputer O/S market around the world.

In terms of national supercomputing superpowers, America is still dominant: more than half of the supercomputers on the list are located in the US. The Cray XT “Jaguar” at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee retained its crown as the world’s fastest computer.

China, while not quite nipping at the US’s heels, is making significant inroads into American dominance of the high-powered computer arena.

The Chinese took second place with their “Nebulae” machine at the National Super Computer Centre in Shenzhen, had two supercomputers in the top ten for the first time ever, and 24 in the list overall.

Germany, the UK and France came in third, fourth and fifth in the country stakes respectively.

There’s a great interactive infographic of the “Supercomputing Superpowers” on the BBC News website which lets you visually explore more statistics from the list.

When it comes to Linux hosting for your website, we can’t offer you a supercomputer ;-), but we do offer the very latest Dell servers, and a great package of features and performance for your business needs.