from the kilo-mega-giga-tera-peta-exa...-Zoinks!! dept.
Intel will build the first exascale supercomputer in the US
Research planned for the $500 million+ Aurora project includes suicide prevention (by analyzing risk factors) and improving the ability to "predict climate at a regional scale," according to Rick Stevens, associate laboratory director for computing, environment and life sciences at Argonne. Researchers also hope to discover materials that will help in the construction of more efficient solar cells and develop "extreme-scale cosmological simulations."
The teams behind the project are not ready to share specific technical specs (including the supercomputer's estimated power consumption). However, Aurora will use an upcoming Intel Xeon Scalable processor, Intel Optane DC memory, the X compute architecture and Intel's ONE API. Cray will also contribute its Shasta supercomputer system, which includes more than 200 cabinets and the Slingshot interconnect.
Also at The Verge and TechCrunch.
See also: Argonne Hints at Future Architecture of Aurora Exascale System
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Hewlett Packard Enterprise to Acquire Cray for $1.3 Billion
This morning Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Cray are announcing that HPE will be buying out the supercomputer maker for roughly 1.3 billion dollars. Intending to use Cray's knowledge and technology to bolster their own supercomputing and high-performance computing technologies, when the deal closes, HPE will become the world leader for supercomputing technology.
Cray of course needs no introduction. The current leader in the supercomputing field and founder of supercomputing as we know it, Cray has been a part of the supercomputing landscape since the 1970s. Starting at the time with fully custom systems, in more recent years Cray has morphed into an integrator and scale-out specialist, combining processors from the likes of Intel, AMD, and NVIDIA into supercomputers, and applying their own software, I/O, and interconnect technologies.
The timing of the acquisition announcement closely follows other major news from Cray: the company just landed a $600 million US Department of Energy contract to supply the Frontier supercomputer to Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 2021. Frontier is one of two exascale supercomputers Cray is involved in – the other being a subcontractor for the 2021 Aurora system – and in fact Cray is involved in the only two exascale systems ordered by the US Government thus far. So in both a historical and modern context, Cray was and is one of the biggest players in the supercomputing market.
Related: Intel and Cray Will Build Aurora, U.S.'s First Exaflops Supercomputer, for $500 Million
Cray and AMD Will Build a 1.5 Exaflops Supercomputer by 2021
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 19 2019, @09:20AM (2 children)
And what would the Chinese do with the profit they make from this deal - yeah, you guessed it - they're gonna compete, head on, but bigger:
https://www.scmp.com/tech/policy/article/3002117/china-plans-multibillion-dollar-investment-knock-us-top-spot-fastest
It's willy-waving time!
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @09:53AM
Intel chips are made in Israel. The made in US is probably the Cray part.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @05:40PM
AMD could do it cheaper.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Tuesday March 19 2019, @10:03AM
From wikipedia: In 2012, Cray opened a subsidiary in China.
(No one has updated the Cray wiki page for years.)
Shasta seems to be a liquid cooling system incorporated into cabinets.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @10:24AM (1 child)
Imagine a beowulf cluster of those things.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 19 2019, @05:57PM
Kubernetes makes Beowulf seem like ancient history.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday March 19 2019, @01:05PM
I'm am curious of the power envelope of the Intel "scalable processor" compared to Nvidia.
Nvidia is a bit of a beast but still several times the performance of the last Intel SP line.
Anyone have any better idea?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @04:26PM (1 child)
So how much computing power are they putting in to solving their CPU design flaws? i.e. Spectre and SPOILER and such architectural issues that effect every CPU they're designed for the last decade?
Why just build out more flawed crap?
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Tuesday March 19 2019, @06:01PM
If they control the software that runs on it, and trust it, then it would seem there should be nothing to worry about in principle.
If you allow a third party job into the cluster that you might not fully trust, then confine it to nodes that have mitigation features.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @06:12PM (1 child)
bullshit problems for $500 million.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @08:41PM
No shit, not yet. Pancreatic Enzymes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 19 2019, @10:05PM
Exa- scale IME doesn't come cheap.