IBM Scalable POWERparallel


Scalable POWERparallel is a series of supercomputers from IBM. SP systems were part of the IBM RISC System/6000 family, and were also called the RS/6000 SP. The first model, the SP1, was introduced in February 1993, and new models were introduced throughout the 1990s until the RS/6000 was succeeded by eServer pSeries in October 2000. The SP is a distributed memory system, consisting of multiple RS/6000-based nodes interconnected by an IBM-proprietary switch called the High Performance Switch. The nodes are clustered using software called PSSP, which is mainly written in Perl.
Computer scientist Marc Snir was awarded the Seymour Cray Computer Engineering Award by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2013 for his contributions to supercomputing, which included his work on the SP.

Notable systems

POWER1-based

Model# of CPUsCPUCPU MHzCacheMemoryIntroducedDiscontinued
SP11POWER1++62.5-64 to 256 MB1993-02-021994-12-16

POWER2-based

Model# of CPUsCPUCPU MHzL2 CacheMemoryIntroducedDiscontinued
Thin 11POWER266?64 to 512 MB1995-08-221996-12-20
Thin 21POWER266??1995-08-221997-06-27
Wide 11POWER266?64 MB to 2 GB1995-08-221996-12-20
Wide 21POWER277??1995-08-221997-06-27

PowerPC 604-based

Model# of CPUsCPUCPU MHzCacheMemoryIntroducedDiscontinued
High 12, 4, 6, 8PowerPC 604112??1996-07-231998-01-08
High 22, 4, 6, 8PowerPC 604e200??1997-08-261998-04-21
332 Thin2, 4PowerPC 604e332??1998-04-212000-12-29
332 Wide2, 4PowerPC 604e332??1998-04-212000-12-29
--PowerPC 604e-----

P2SC-based

Model# of CPUsCPUCPU MHzCacheMemoryIntroducedDiscontinued
160 Thin1P2SC160??1997-10-061998-04-21
Thin P2SC1P2SC120??1996-10-081998-04-21
Wide P2SC1P2SC135??1996-10-081998-04-21

POWER3-based

Model# of CPUsCPUCPU MHzL2 CacheMemoryIntroducedDiscontinued
POWER3 High2, 4, 6, 8POWER3222??1999-09-132000-12-29
POWER3 High2, 4, 6, 8POWER3-II375??2000-07-182002-12-27
POWER3 Thin1, 2POWER3200??1999-09-012000-06-30
POWER3 Thin1, 2POWER3-II375??2000-02-072003-04-08
POWER3 Thin1, 2POWER3-II450??2002-01-222003-04-08
POWER3 Wide1, 2POWER3200??1999-02-012000-06-30
POWER3 Wide2, 4POWER3-II375??2000-02-072003-04-08
POWER3 Wide2, 4POWER3-II450??2002-01-222003-04-08