The SX-8 is a supercomputer

Supercomputer

A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...

 built by NEC Corporation. The SX-8 Series implements an eight-way SMP

Symmetric multiprocessing

In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...

 system in a compact node module and uses an enhanced version of the single chip vector processor that was introduced with the SX-6

NEC SX-6

The SX-6 is a supercomputer built by NEC Corporation that debuted in 2001; the SX-6 was sold under license by Cray Inc. in the U.S. Each SX-6 single-node system contains up to eight vector processors, which share up to 64 GB of computer memory...

. The NEC SX-8 processors run at 2 GHz for vectors and 1 GHz for scalar operations. The SX-8 CPU operates at 16 GFLOPS and can address up to 128 GB of memory. Up to 8 CPUs may be used in a single node, and a complete system may have up to 512 nodes. The SX-8 series ranges from the single-CPU SX-8b system to the SX-8/4096M512, with 512 nodes, 4,096 CPUs, and a peak performance of 65 TFLOPS. There is up to 512 GB/s bandwidth per node (64 GB/s per processor). The SX-8 runs SUPER-UX

SUPER-UX

SUPER-UX, sometimes also annotated SuperUx or Super-UX, is the version of the Unix operating system that is used on NEC SX architecture supercomputers...

, a Unix-like

Unix-like

A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....

 operating system developed by NEC.

The first production SX-8 was installed at the UK Met Office

Met Office

The Met Office , is the United Kingdom's national weather service, and a trading fund of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...

 in early 2005. In October 2006, an upgraded SX-8 was announced, the SX-8R. The NEC SX-8R processors run at 2.2 GHz for vectors and 1.1 GHz for scalar operations. The SX-8R can process double the amount of vector operations per clock compared to the SX-8. The SX-8R CPU has a peak vector performance 35.2 GFLOPS (10% frequency increase and double the number of vector operations) and can address up to 256 GB of memory in a single node (up from 128 GB).

The French national meteorological service, Météo-France

Météo-France

Météo-France is the French national meteorological service.The organisation was established by decree in June 1993 and is a department of the Ministry of Transportation. It is headquartered in Paris but many domestic operations have been decentralised to Toulouse...

, rents a SX-8R for 3.7 million euros a year.

NEC Published Product Highlights

• 16GFLOPS peak vector performance, with eight operations per clock running at 2 GHz or 0.5ns (1 GHz for scalar)
• Up to 8 CPUs per node, manufactured in 90 nm Cu technology
• Up to 16 GB of memory per CPU, 128 GB in a single node
• Up to 512 GB/s bandwidth per node, 64 GB/s per CPU
• IXS Super-Switch between nodes, up to 512 nodes supported, 32 GB/s per node (16 GB/s for each direction)
• Air cooled
• Runs SUPER-UX
  SUPER-UX
  SUPER-UX, sometimes also annotated SuperUx or Super-UX, is the version of the Unix operating system that is used on NEC SX architecture supercomputers...
  
  , System V port, 4.3 BSD with enhancements for multinode systems; ease of use; support for new languages and standards; and operation improvements