It also allows vendors to use off-the-shelf and commodity parts, such as x86 microprocessors from Intel and Advanced Micro Devices, to build high-performance computers that are much more affordable.Īnother company, Appro, has had success in recent years in building these types of supercomputers. The cluster design allows supercomputers to scale to meet the needs of mainstream businesses. The market is also expected to grow about 9 percent through 2011 and many of these same players are looking to expand that market by bringing more of these machines out of labs and research facilities and into mainstream enterprises. The supercomputing market is controlled by just a few players, such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, SGI and Cray, which continue to dominate the list of the Top 500 machines year after year. In addition to its role in building clusters, LNXI (Linux Networx) also specializes in developing and building systems that use Linux, which remains the dominant operating system used in HPC. Of the Top 500 supercomputers, 406 are designated as clusters. In the world of supercomputing, clusters remain the dominant architecture for building these massive machines. 14 that it has acquired Linux Networx, a company best known for developing Linux clusters for HPC (high-performance computing).

The Sunnyvale, Calif., company, which continues to rank as one of the leading builders of supercomputers, announced Feb.

SGI is looking to boost its supercomputer profile.

Networx systems marketing