In our first HPC Channel webcast of 2011, we talk to Rich Brueckner of InsideHPC. In our discussion, we take the measure of current HPC performance and talk about the factors that got us to this point. Some interesting data in the slides, including performance metrics of the #1, #100 and #500 systems on the Top500 list over the past ten years. When you chart out the results, you see a pattern where we just sort of plodded along until somewhere around 2006 – and then performance ramps up in hockey-stick fashion. This pattern holds true for the top, middle-high and lowest systems tracked by the Top500.