{"id": 1144187, "name": "Computational capacity of the fastest supercomputer", "unit": "gigaflops per second", "createdAt": "2026-02-02T13:02:24.000Z", "updatedAt": "2026-02-02T13:02:24.000Z", "coverage": "", "timespan": "1993-2025", "datasetId": 7343, "shortUnit": "Gflop/s", "columnOrder": 0, "shortName": "computational_capacity_fastest_supercomputer", "catalogPath": "grapher/technology/2026-02-01/top500_supercomputers/top500_supercomputers#computational_capacity_fastest_supercomputer", "descriptionShort": "The number of [floating-point operations](#dod:flop) carried out per second by the fastest supercomputer in any given year. This is expressed in gigaflops, equivalent to 10\u2079 floating-point operations per second.", "descriptionFromProducer": "The Top500 list the 500 fastest computer system being used today. In 1993 the collection was started and has been updated every 6 months since then. The report lists the sites that have the 500 most powerful computer systems installed. The best Linpack benchmark performance achieved is used as a performance measure in ranking the computers. The TOP500 list has been updated twice a year since June 1993.\n\n\"The Linpack Benchmark is a measure of a computer\u2019s floating-point rate of execution. It is determined by running a computer program that solves a dense system of linear equations. The paper \u201cThe LINPACK Benchmark: Past, Present, and Future\u201d by Jack Dongarra, Piotr Luszczek, and Antoine Petitet provides a look at the details of the benchmark and provides performance data in graphics form for a number of machines on basic operations. A copy of the paper is available at http://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/hpl.pdf\"", "descriptionProcessing": "Data is aggregated from all TOP500 lists published between 1993 and 2025. For each year, we select the maximum Rmax value across all lists published in that year. Performance values are converted from teraflops per second (TFlop/s) to gigaflops per second (GFlop/s) by multiplying by 1000.", "type": "float", "datasetName": "TOP500 Supercomputer Lists (1993-2025)", "updatePeriodDays": 365, "datasetVersion": "2026-02-01", "nonRedistributable": false, "display": {"unit": "gigaflops per second", "shortUnit": "Gflop/s", "numDecimalPlaces": 0}, "schemaVersion": 2, "processingLevel": "major", "presentation": {"topicTagsLinks": ["Technological Change"]}, "descriptionKey": ["Computational capacity is measured with the [Linpack benchmark](https://www.netlib.org/utk/people/JackDongarra/PAPERS/hpl.pdf), which tests how fast a computer can solve a large, dense set of linear equations.", "This indicator shows the highest sustained Linpack speed achieved by the fastest supercomputer each year, as recorded by the [TOP500](https://top500.org/) project.", "One gigaflop per second (Gflop/s) equals one billion [floating-point operations](#dod:flop) per second.", "The Linpack benchmark tests only one type of computation, so it doesn't capture overall system performance. Real-world applications often perform differently than this benchmark suggests."], "dimensions": {"years": {"values": [{"id": 1993}, {"id": 1994}, {"id": 1995}, {"id": 1996}, {"id": 1997}, {"id": 1998}, {"id": 1999}, {"id": 2000}, {"id": 2001}, {"id": 2002}, {"id": 2003}, {"id": 2004}, {"id": 2005}, {"id": 2006}, {"id": 2007}, {"id": 2008}, {"id": 2009}, {"id": 2010}, {"id": 2011}, {"id": 2012}, {"id": 2013}, {"id": 2014}, {"id": 2015}, {"id": 2016}, {"id": 2017}, {"id": 2018}, {"id": 2019}, {"id": 2020}, {"id": 2021}, {"id": 2022}, {"id": 2023}, {"id": 2024}, {"id": 2025}]}, "entities": {"values": [{"id": 355, "name": "World", "code": "OWID_WRL"}]}}, "origins": [{"id": 10926, "title": "TOP500 Supercomputer Lists (1993-2025)", "description": "The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful non-distributed computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year (June and November). This dataset combines all TOP500 lists from 1993 to 2025, including computational performance benchmarks, system specifications, and rankings.", "producer": "Dongarra et al.", "citationFull": "\u201cPerformance of Various Computers Using Standard Linear Equations Software\u201d, Jack Dongarra, University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN, 37996, Computer Science Technical Report Number CS - 89 \u2013 85, today\u2019s date, url:http://www.netlib.org/benchmark/performance.ps.\"", "attributionShort": "TOP500", "urlMain": "https://www.top500.org/", "dateAccessed": "2026-02-01", "datePublished": "2025", "license": {"url": "https://www.top500.org/", "name": "\u00a9 TOP500.org 1993-2025"}}]}