In June 2008 the Petaflop/s barrier was broken by the Roadrunner system, using the High Performance Linpack benchmark as a metric. How useful is that to us, other HPC system users ? And how useful is a Roadrunner-like system in general ? We will explore various approaches to benchmarking as tools for assessing the practical value of HPC systems for the average user and some thoughts about a methodology for benchmarking in the selection process of large HPC systems. We will also discuss some recent developments regarding benchmarks in the European PRACE project that aims to provide an infrastructure for Pflop/s systems in Europe.

Aad Van der Steen, High Performance Computing Group, Utrecht University, Pays Bas.