HP: Itanium supercomputer up and running
Stephen Shankland Former Principal Writer
Stephen Shankland worked at CNET from 1998 to 2024 and wrote about processors, digital photography, AI, quantum computing, computer science, materials science, supercomputers, drones, browsers, 3D printing, USB, and new computing technology in general. He has a soft spot in his heart for standards groups and I/O interfaces. His first big scoop was about radioactive cat poop.
Expertise Processors, semiconductors, web browsers, quantum computing, supercomputers, AI, 3D printing, drones, computer science, physics, programming, materials science, USB, UWB, Android, digital photography, science. Credentials
- Shankland covered the tech industry for more than 25 years and was a science writer for five years before that. He has deep expertise in microprocessors, digital photography, computer hardware and software, internet standards, web technology, and more.
A Hewlett-Packard supercomputer at is fully operational, HP said Tuesday. The system is capable of performing 11.8 trillion calculations per second and is geared for chemistry, climatology and molecular science research.
The system uses 1,984 of Intel's 1.5GHz Itanium 2 "Madison" processors. An earlier version with 1.0GHz "McKinley" Itanium processors was ranked at No. 8 on a list of the 500 fastest supercomputers, and HP expects that ranking to climb now that the system has been completed.