IBM Blue Gene
A Blue Gene/P supercomputer at Argonne National Laboratory | |
| Developer | IBM |
|---|---|
| Type | Supercomputer platform |
| Release date | BG/L: February 1999 BG/P: June 2007 BG/Q: Nov 2011 |
| Discontinued | 2015 |
| CPU | BG/L: PowerPC 440 BG/P: PowerPC 450 BG/Q: PowerPC A2 |
| Predecessor | IBM RS/6000 SP; QCDOC |
| Successor | Summit, Sierra |
Blue Gene was an IBM project aimed at designing supercomputers that can reach operating speeds in the petaFLOPS (PFLOPS) range, with relatively low power consumption.
The project created three generations of supercomputers, Blue Gene/L, Blue Gene/P, and Blue Gene/Q. During their deployment, Blue Gene systems often led the TOP500 and Green500 rankings of the most powerful and most power-efficient supercomputers, respectively. Blue Gene systems have also consistently scored top positions in the Graph500 list. The project was awarded the 2009 National Medal of Technology and Innovation.
After Blue Gene/Q, IBM focused its supercomputer efforts on the OpenPower platform, using accelerators such as FPGAs and GPUs to address the diminishing returns of Moore's law.