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<\/p>\n(Supercomputer Series part 2 of 4)<\/p>\n
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In 2009 Computerworld projected exascale computers would debut by 2018.\u00a0 But now, as 2021 has come and gone, will exascale computers be finally realized this year?\u00a0 Or are exascale computers already running in secret?<\/p>\n
Exascale computing is the current Holy Grail in computer performance partly because exascale computing power is roughly equivalent to the computing power of the human brain.\u00a0 Many countries are developing exascale performing supercomputers which will be able to perform 1 quintillion (1018<\/sup> or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000) double precision floating point calculations per second. The United States, The European Union and China all have exascale computers under development.\u00a0\u00a0 (Of course, a traditional supercomputer cannot perform the same tasks of the human brain and vice versa.\u00a0 Exascale computing performance is only an estimate of compute power.)<\/p>\n The world\u2019s first exascale computer may be HPE\u2019s Aurora.\u00a0 Aurora is a $600 million collaboration between Intel and Cray Inc. (now HPE).\u00a0 Installation of Aurora at the U. S. Department of Energy\u2019s Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago began in October 2021.\u00a0 Aurora\u2019s HPE Cray XE supercomputer platform is expected to have over 9000 nodes.\u00a0 Each node comprises two Intel Xeon Sapphire Rapids CPUs and six Ponte Vecchio GPUs. \u00a0Aurora is now targeting greater than 2 exaflops of performance.<\/p>\n Also in the running is Frontier, the exascale computer collaboration between AMD and HPE.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Energy announced a contract with Cray Inc. (now HPE) to build the Frontier supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in May 2019. \u00a0Frontier was anticipated to be operational in 2021 and boast a performance of 1.5 exaflops. It\u2019s now scheduled to be operational in the first half of 2022.\u00a0 Powered by AMD\u2019s optimized generation 3 Epyc CPUs and its Radeon Instinct GPUs, Frontier will consume 30 MW and have a footprint of 7,300 sq. ft. (2225 m2<\/sup>).<\/p>\n But has China already scooped the US by building not one, but 2 exascale computers?\u00a0\u00a0 An anonymous source claims that The National Supercomputing Center in Wuxi, China is already running an operational exascale computer with sustained performance of 1.05 exaflops, a peak performance of 1.3 exaflops and consuming about 35 MW.\u00a0 Named \u201cOceanlite\u201d, it is successor to the Sunway TaihuLight, which is officially recognized as China\u2019s most powerful supercomputer.\u00a0 Simultaneously, China\u2019s National University of Defense Technology may possess yet another exascale computer with performance similar to Oceanlite. \u00a0Probably named Tianhe-3, it is powered by China\u2019s Phytium Technology Co., Ltd\u2019s FeiTeng processors which were developed internally after U.S. trade sanctions prevented China from acquiring Intel\u2019s Xeon Phi processors.<\/p>\n Up to now, the performance of Oceanlite and Tiannhe-3 are state secrets and it\u2019s unclear why China hasn\u2019t publicized their existence.<\/p>\n BDA<\/p>\n Next:<\/strong> The Supercomputer Series<\/span><\/p>\n Part 3 of 4.\u00a0 The Human Brain vs. the Computer.<\/p>\n Part 4 of 4.\u00a0 The Quantum Computer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Supercomputer Series part 2 of 4) In 2009 Computerworld projected…