"The Future Supercomputer: Colossus or Cluster?"

The latest rankings in the Top 500 Supercomputer list show that clustered systems are gaining in power and popularity among the supercomputer crowd. Clustered systems make up 16 percent of the list, double the percentage from last November. The most popular technology for clustered systems was IBM's Netfinity, Intel-based system, while Aberdeen analyst Bill Claybrook says Linux is proving itself to be the most successful operating system for clustered machines.

Cray director of high-performance computing solutions Wayne Kugel says the rising popularity of clustered systems shows the evolution of the supercomputing arena, where both clustered and massively parallel systems will complement one another. In bioinformatics, for example, Kugel says that clustered systems are best used to extract base data while parallel systems work to integrate the data. Because parallel systems have better internal communication and less latency, they are best-suited for enormous individual problems--the top-ranking Earth Simulator built in Japan by NEC is one example of such a system.
( http://www.newsfactor.com/perl/story/18440.html)