Chips now power heavy-duty systems Intel at the ClusterWorld conference in San Jose, Calif., this week plans to tout what the company describes as its emergence as a player in high-performance computing.Intel-based systems in the Top500’s list of most powerful computer systems total 119, more than double the number of six months ago, according to Intel. Three years ago the number stood at just two, the company said.“What [Intel’s rankings] show is that Intel-based systems, which historically had not been used for the most demanding and challenging applications, are now on par with and as fast as other competing technologies,” said Tom Gibbs, Intel director of industry marketing, in Dupont, Wash. Nineteen Intel Itanium systems appear on the list. A cluster of Intel Xeon systems in use at Lawrence Livermore Laboratory, in Livermore, Calif., ranked No. 3, Intel said.The Top500 project began in 1993 to provide a reliable basis for tracking trends in high-performance computing, according to the organization’s Web site. Technology Industry