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ViVA (Virtual Vector Architecture) is a technology from IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 for coupling together multiple scalar
Scalar (computing)

In computing, a scalar is a variable or field that can hold only one value at a time; as opposed to composite variables like array, List , object composition, etc....
 floating point unit
Floating point unit

A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division , and square root....
s to act as a single vector processor
Vector processor

A vector processor, or array processor, is a Central processing unit design where the instruction set includes operations that can perform mathematical operations on multiple data elements simultaneously....
. Certain computing tasks are more efficiently handled through vector computations where an instruction can be applied to multiple elements simultaneously, rather than the scalar approach where one instruction is applied to one piece of data at a time. This kind of technology is highly sought after for scientific computing and is IBM's answer to the vector-based supercomputer
Supercomputer

A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputers introduced in the 1960s were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation , and led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to form his own company, Cray Research....
s pioneered by Cray
Cray

Cray Inc. is a supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray....
 and that was the basis for NEC
NEC

is a Japan multinational corporation IT company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
's Earth Simulator
Earth Simulator

The Earth Simulator was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004. The system was developed for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, and Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in 1997 for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid ear...
 which was the fastest supercomputer in the world 2002-2004.

ViVA was developed and implemented by IBM together with National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, or NERSC for short, is a designated user facility operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the United States Department of Energy....
 inside the Blue Planet project where they had 8 dual core POWER5
POWER5

POWER5 is a microprocessor developed and fabricated by IBM. It is an improved variant of the highly successful POWER4. The principal improvements are support for simultaneous multithreading and an Semiconductor-die cutting memory controller....
 processors made into one vector processor capable of approximately 60-80 GFLOPS
FLOPS

In computing, FLOPS is an acronym meaning FLoating point Operations Per Second. The FLOPS is a measure of a computer's computer performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating point calculations, similar to instructions per second....
 of computing power.






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ViVA (Virtual Vector Architecture) is a technology from IBM
IBM

International Business Machines Corporation, abbreviated IBM and nicknamed "Big Blue" , is a multinational corporation computer technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, New York, United States....
 for coupling together multiple scalar
Scalar (computing)

In computing, a scalar is a variable or field that can hold only one value at a time; as opposed to composite variables like array, List , object composition, etc....
 floating point unit
Floating point unit

A floating-point unit is a part of a computer system specially designed to carry out operations on floating point numbers. Typical operations are addition, subtraction, multiplication, division , and square root....
s to act as a single vector processor
Vector processor

A vector processor, or array processor, is a Central processing unit design where the instruction set includes operations that can perform mathematical operations on multiple data elements simultaneously....
. Certain computing tasks are more efficiently handled through vector computations where an instruction can be applied to multiple elements simultaneously, rather than the scalar approach where one instruction is applied to one piece of data at a time. This kind of technology is highly sought after for scientific computing and is IBM's answer to the vector-based supercomputer
Supercomputer

A supercomputer is a computer that is at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation. Supercomputers introduced in the 1960s were designed primarily by Seymour Cray at Control Data Corporation , and led the market into the 1970s until Cray left to form his own company, Cray Research....
s pioneered by Cray
Cray

Cray Inc. is a supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray....
 and that was the basis for NEC
NEC

is a Japan multinational corporation IT company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. NEC, part of the Sumitomo Group, provides information technology and network solutions to business enterprises, communications services providers and government....
's Earth Simulator
Earth Simulator

The Earth Simulator was the fastest supercomputer in the world from 2002 to 2004. The system was developed for Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, Japan Atomic Energy Research Institute, and Japan Marine Science and Technology Center in 1997 for running global climate models to evaluate the effects of global warming and problems in solid ear...
 which was the fastest supercomputer in the world 2002-2004.

ViVA was developed and implemented by IBM together with National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center

The National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, or NERSC for short, is a designated user facility operated by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the United States Department of Energy....
 inside the Blue Planet project where they had 8 dual core POWER5
POWER5

POWER5 is a microprocessor developed and fabricated by IBM. It is an improved variant of the highly successful POWER4. The principal improvements are support for simultaneous multithreading and an Semiconductor-die cutting memory controller....
 processors made into one vector processor capable of approximately 60-80 GFLOPS
FLOPS

In computing, FLOPS is an acronym meaning FLoating point Operations Per Second. The FLOPS is a measure of a computer's computer performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating point calculations, similar to instructions per second....
 of computing power. ViVA technology is in use in the ASC Purple
ASC Purple

ASC Purple is a supercomputer that is installed at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in Livermore, CA. The computer is a collaboration between IBM Corporation and Lawrence Livermore Lab....
 supercomputer.

Where ViVA was a software implementation in high-end POWER5 based systems, the second generation, ViVA-2, is directly supported by hardware in the POWER6
POWER6

The POWER6 microprocessor is IBM's follow-on to the POWER5. It is part of the eCLipz, said to have a goal of converging IBM's server hardware where practical ....
 processor.