What’s a Supercomputer

Good for Anyway?

Ruth Poole – IBM Software Engineer
Blue Gene Control System
 Overview

• Applications
– Current Customers
– Future Directions
• Architecture Foundations
• Hardware Comparisons
• Trends
Application Categories – Current
Customers
• Government and University
– Nuclear stockpile stewardship
– Other research
• Computational Fluid Dynamics – CFD
– Aerodynamics – aerospace, automotive, engine design
– Weather/climate modeling
• Physics / Astronomy
– QCD – Quantum Chromodynamics
– Flash – simulate supernovae explosions
– LOFAR – radio telescope consisting of many small
receivers
• Biomedical
– Computational chemistry
– Drug discovery
– DNA sequencing and search
• Others
– Finance
– Oil / Gas exploration
 NAMD - NAnoscale Molecular
Dynamics
• Theoretical and Computational Biophysics
Group (TCB) and Parallel Programming
Laboratory (PPL) at the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign
• Simulate systems of millions of atoms
• Use to build models of cellular processes
• Current goal: model one micro-second of cell
behavior
 Blue Brain - EPFL
• EPFL-IBM joint research
project to create a cellular
level, software replica of the
Neocortical Column
• Phase 1, rat brain with
10,000 neuron Neocortical
Column with automatically
generated, biologically
accurate neurons completed
November 26, 2007
• Study its function and
dysfunction and to lay the
foundation for large scale
modeling of the mammalian
brain
 Materials Science
• Blue Waters IBM / NSF collaboration project
for open research
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
planned for 2011
• Design a substance from atoms that meets
specific parameters for conductivity and
strength
 Robot Surgeons
• Laser prostate surgery on a dog
• Real-time data from MRI used to guide laser
• Computer in Austin, Dog in Houston
• TACC Lonestar, #38 on Top500.org
 Simulated Plants
• Computer model that mimics the process of
evolution.
• First model to simulate every step of the
photosynthetic process.
• Researchers have built a better plant, one that
produces more leaves and fruit without
needing extra fertilizer.
• University of Illinois; Photo by Don Hamerman
 Background and Definitions
• Processors (Nodes)
– Multicore – more than one processor on a chip, dual = 2,
quad = 4, etc.
– Hybrid – a main processor with one or more secondary
processors for specific computations (aka. accelerator)
• “Macro” Architecture
– Massively Parallel Processing system (MPP) –
Supercomputer with nodes, memory, networking tightly
integrated
– Cluster – A network of commodity machines connected by
a network
• Interconnect (between nodes)
– Crossbar – all nodes connected through crossbar
– Mesh/Torus – nodes connected in a grid
– Tree – nodes connected in a (fat) tree
 Hardware Comparisons

• IBM Road Runner

• IBM Blue Gene L/P
• Sun Constellation
• Cray XT5/h
• Cluster Systems

• Top500.org
 IBM Roadrunner
• # 1 – 1 PetaFlop
• Hybrid blades
• 1-AMD Dual-core Opteron 1.8 GHz / 2-PowerXCell 8i
3.2 Ghz
• 6,948 / 12,960 processors
• Infiniband and Gigabit Ethernet
• Los Alamos
“I know how to make 4
horses pull a cart - I don't
know how to make 1024
chickens do it.”
Enrico Clementi - former IBM
fellow
 IBM Blue Gene L/P
• # 2, 3, 6, 9, others – 478 TFlops / 450 TFlops
• Large number of modest processors
• PowerPC 440/450 – 700/850 Mhz
• 212,992 / 163,840 cores
• 3-D torus
• Communication over the torus network
• Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Argonne, NCAR, others
 Sun Constellation – Ranger
• # 4 – 326 TFlops
• AMD Quad-core Opteron 2 GHz Blades
• 62,976 cores
• Full-Clos Infiniband
• Texas Advanced Computing Center
 Cray XT5
• “Adapt the system to the application”
• Quad-Core AMD Opteron 2.1 GHz
• 30,976 (XT4 - Oak Ridge National Lab, # 5 –
205 TFlops)
• Cray SeaStar2 – 3-D Torus
• XT5h – hybrid processors
– AMD Opteron
– Configurable FPGA accelerator
• Oak Ridge (planned)
 Clusters
• 400 of the Top500.org
• Many different vendors, configurations
• Low cost, commodity systems
• More management tools becoming available
• Slower communication between nodes
 Trends
• Multicore – more processors on a chip
• Hybrid processors
– Accelerators for specific kinds of computation
– More difficult to take advantage of
• “Greenness” – Green500.org
• Liquid cooling – Cray XT5 planned for Oak Ridge
• More tools and systems integration
– Blue Waters
– Microsoft Windows HPC
• Deskside supercomputers?
– IBM BG/S
– Cray CX1
• Mainstream customers – not just for research anymore
– Financial
– Engineering
 References
• Overview of Recent Supercomputers - 2007 Edition
http://top500.org/2007_overview_recent_supercomputers
• Cray XT5 product brochure
http://www.cray.com/Products/XT/Product/Specifications.
aspx
• Sun Constellation system information
http://www.sun.com/servers/hpc/sunconstellationsystem/
• IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 52,
Number 1/2, 2008
• “TACC Supercomputer Performs Laser Cancer Surgery
on Canine” HPCWire, May 27, 2008, Aaron Dubrow
• “Researchers successfully simulate photosynthesis and
design a better leaf” News Bureau: University of Illinois at
Urbana-Chapaign, November 2007, Diana Yates
• The Blue Brain Project http://bluebrain.epfl.ch
• Blue Waters
http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/BlueWaters/
 Background and Definitions
• Architectural classes
– SIMD – single instruction, multiple data
(vectorprocessors) – multiple processors in lock-
step, each with its own set of data
– MIMD – multiple instruction, multiple data – the bulk
of High Performance Computing (HPC) systems
• Memory
– Shared – all nodes have access to same memory
– Distributed – each node has its own memory
– NUMA – non-uniform memory access – logically
shared, physically distributed
• Interconnect (between nodes)
– Crossbar – all nodes connected through crossbar
– Mesh/Torus – nodes connected in a grid
– Tree – nodes connected in a (fat) tree