(IBM
Scalable
POWER) A family of massively parallel (MPP) computer systems from IBM based on its RS/6000 (pSeries) models that incorporate various POWER and PowerPC CPUs. First introduced in 1993, SP configurations support from two to 512 processors. IBM SP systems run AIX and use IBM's POWERparallel architecture, which is a high-speed interconnect between processors (SP switch).
In 1994, the University of New Mexico's Maui High Performance Computing Center installed an SP2 with 400 CPUs, providing 100 gigaflops of computational power. See
POWER and
pSeries.