Supercomputers/Systems/IMS Molecular Simulator
Japan · operational · hpc
IMS Molecular Simulator
Also known as Molecular Simulator (2017 NEC LX)
Operated by Institute for Molecular Science .
Phase 1 seed dataset, compiled by hand. These rows were built from public operator, laboratory and vendor sources. A mechanical second-reader pass has since fetched every cited source: 1092 of 1153 systems have a readable citation that names them, and 40 are genuinely weakly sourced. Every claim carries its source and a confidence tier. Treat anything below verified as a lead, not a citation.
Measured performance
- Rmax
- 1.79 PFlop/s
- Rpeak
- 3.07 PFlop/s
- Rmax ÷ Rpeak
- 58.3%
- Cores
- 38,552
- Power
- 544.48 kW
- Per watt
- 3.3 GF/W
Figures are as last publicly reported for the configuration described below, not a live measurement. Where a system was upgraded in place, the post-upgrade configuration is shown and the earlier one appears in the timeline.
What this machine is made of
One row per supplier relationship. “Supplier at build” is the company that shipped the part at the time; where that company has since been acquired, the parent it rolls up to today is shown beside it. That distinction is what makes ticker-level aggregation possible across a thirty-year dataset.
| Role | Part | Supplier at build | Quantity | Confidence | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integrator | - NEC LX Cluster | NEC | - | Verified | top500.orghpcwire.jp |
| CPU | Intel Xeon Gold 6148 CPUs x86-64 · 20C · 2.4 GHz · 14 nm · 150 W Xeon Gold 6148 20C 2.4GHz and Gold 6154 18C nodes | Intel | - | Verified | top500.orghpcwire.jp |
| Interconnect | Omni-Path Architecture Interconnect Fat tree · 100 Gb/s per port · About 1 microsecond Intel Omni-Path | Cornelis Networks | - | Verified | top500.orghpcwire.jp |
| Operating system | CentOS Operating systems Linux distribution, RHEL-compatible rebuild · Open source, community-maintained CentOS | The CentOS Project | - | Reported | top500.org |
The read
NEC LX cluster at the Institute for Molecular Science in Okazaki, Japan, run by its Research Center for Computational Science from 1 October 2017. TOP500 lists Xeon Gold 6148 and 6154 nodes on Intel Omni-Path with 38,552 cores, 1.79 PFlop/s Rmax, 3.07 PFlop/s Rpeak and 544.48 kW; it ranked 261st in June 2020 (entry recorded here). A Japanese HPCwire article describes 20-core Gold 6148 nodes for parallel molecular dynamics and 18-core Gold 6154 nodes for serial quantum chemistry, 1.8 PFlop/s Linpack and 3.1 PFlop/s peak, quoting 40,588 cores and 216,768 GB of memory against 38,552 cores on TOP500. A later, different A100-based machine of the same name appears on the 2024 and 2025 lists and is not covered here.
Timeline
Public list appearances
Pointers only: rank and edition, linking to the canonical entry. We do not reproduce list tables. See sourcing policy.
Change history
- 2026-10-02 Added IMS Molecular Simulator
Source check
We fetched this system's own citations and recorded whether each page actually mentions it. This is a corroboration signal, not a fact check, and it is published so you can see how well the sourcing holds up rather than take it on trust.
| Cited source | Result | Found on the page |
|---|---|---|
| top500.org | names system and part | Intel Xeon Gold 6148, Omni-Path Architecture, CentOS |
| hpcwire.jp | does not name this system | Intel Xeon Gold 6148, Omni-Path Architecture |
Checked 2026-10-09 by pnpm verify. Re-run it and the table changes with the web.
Further reading
Operating a supercomputer
Acceptance testing, why "installed" and "in production" are six months apart, and the machine lifecycle.
Inside a node
Latency-optimised versus throughput-optimised processors, NUMA, and the end of the host-to-device copy.
The interconnect
Topologies, why latency and tail behaviour matter more than bandwidth, and how the fabric market consolidated.