> We think it is highly likely that these LX2 chiplets are etched using SMIC 7 nanometer processes at the N+3 refinement, and we base that on the fact that the chip only runs at 1.55 GHz. That is nowhere near the 3 GHz that SMIC can push with that process, but it is probably lower to get the memory and core speeds more balanced. [1]
> Why aren’t these AI companies submitting to the TOP500 to show off their computing prowess?
my knowledge is 10+ years out of date, but once upon a time if they'd chosen to, Google could have had _several_ entries in the top 10 of the TOP500 list
It's just poker, they didn't want to tip their hand
TOP500 hasn't been a particularly useful measure of practical computing power in modern systems for many years because what it measures isn't a significant bottleneck in most real systems. It has become a measure of how much money someone is willing to spend for bragging rights. (HPCG is better in that it is a bit more bandwidth focused but still pretty narrow.)
Most companies with huge systems don't participate.
It is likely that those cores are dedicated to unrelated management, monitoring, and administrative tasks. This is common and many workloads are throttled on bandwidth anyway. For the purposes of the benchmark, those cores are not participating in the workload.
TOP500 can be done with inexpensive silicon. It is more about a willingness to aggregate enough hardware in one place. As a benchmark, it tells you almost nothing about computing power or scalability for other applications because it doesn't exercise the bottlenecks most high-scale applications have.
We're too busy regulating the tech, not granting access to US engineers and companies, arguing against power and data centers, stopping skilled immigration.
This is absolutely going to bite us in the face in five to ten years.
Separate issue that has nothing to do with US manufacturing or HPC. I think our retreat from science funding and offshoring advanced manufacturing is a bigger issue.
> We think it is highly likely that these LX2 chiplets are etched using SMIC 7 nanometer processes at the N+3 refinement, and we base that on the fact that the chip only runs at 1.55 GHz. That is nowhere near the 3 GHz that SMIC can push with that process, but it is probably lower to get the memory and core speeds more balanced. [1]
Based on the ARMv9.2.
[1] https://www.nextplatform.com/hpc/2026/06/25/a-deep-dive-on-c...
> Why aren’t these AI companies submitting to the TOP500 to show off their computing prowess?
my knowledge is 10+ years out of date, but once upon a time if they'd chosen to, Google could have had _several_ entries in the top 10 of the TOP500 list
It's just poker, they didn't want to tip their hand
Cloud computing is not a supercomputer. Different architecture, bandwitch, interconnectivity and latencies.
That's not nearly as true when you look at AI training clusters. They're basically supercomputers but without an FP64 focus.
(These are the systems to which GP was referring at Google.)
TOP500 hasn't been a particularly useful measure of practical computing power in modern systems for many years because what it measures isn't a significant bottleneck in most real systems. It has become a measure of how much money someone is willing to spend for bragging rights. (HPCG is better in that it is a bit more bandwidth focused but still pretty narrow.)
Most companies with huge systems don't participate.
> Two cores are disabled per cluster.
I’m sure there is a good reason for this, which is..?
It is likely that those cores are dedicated to unrelated management, monitoring, and administrative tasks. This is common and many workloads are throttled on bandwidth anyway. For the purposes of the benchmark, those cores are not participating in the workload.
Just glad to see Hamburg mentioned :) Hope you all didn’t suffer too much through the current heatwave
Extremely impressive accomplishment considering they did this with Chinese interconnects and Chinese chips. This is a wake up call.
TOP500 can be done with inexpensive silicon. It is more about a willingness to aggregate enough hardware in one place. As a benchmark, it tells you almost nothing about computing power or scalability for other applications because it doesn't exercise the bottlenecks most high-scale applications have.
We're too busy regulating the tech, not granting access to US engineers and companies, arguing against power and data centers, stopping skilled immigration.
This is absolutely going to bite us in the face in five to ten years.
Separate issue that has nothing to do with US manufacturing or HPC. I think our retreat from science funding and offshoring advanced manufacturing is a bigger issue.
Would the AI “GW-scale” clusters be able to run the Top500 benchmarks meaningfully? And what might be the outcome?
Previously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48658334
Is it the first to reach 2 exaflops?