Supercomputing: What have we learned from the TOP500 project?

Since 1993 we compile and publish twice a year a list of the most powerful supercomputers in the world. In this article we analyse some major trends in High-Performance Computing (HPC) based on the quantitative data gathered over the years in this TOP500 project (see www.top500.org for a complete access to all data). We start with an overview of the project, including the motivation and rationale behind it. We present the results of the TOP500 project as of November 2002 focusing on the changes over time with respect to the performance levels, the overall dynamics in this market, the manufacturers active in this market-segment, the architectures, and technologies used for these systems, and the major centers using such systems