Based on its innovative interconnect Numascale offers scalable and expandable systems for high performance applications. Adding up standard servers will scale your GPU system within a single image operating system and environment with scalable and shared memory and open for better utilization of the GPUs’ computing power.
Benefits for this solution are easy expansion by standard components and simple operation and programming with shared memory and resources running a single OS.
The standard solution for large GPU systems is to cluster hosts with a limited number of GPUs with Ethernet or Infiniband technology. As in all clusters, a complex message passing software paradigm has to be used and the cluster suffers from nodes with limited size. Individual copies of the OS for each server complicate the operation. Another way is to mount the GPUs in large PCIe systems in high-end servers or in separate cabinets. This solution easily hits scalability limitations imposed by the bus system or server communication.
Based on its unique NumaConnect technology Numascale offers a scalable and expandable solution. Adding up standard servers will scale your GPU system within a single image operating system environment with scalable shared memory.
Numascale offers systems based on two server lines, both with unique advantages. The IBM x3755 M3 server can take up to three AMD 6300 series CPUs, 192 GBytes main memory and a single slot GPU. The IBM server offers many reliability features and configuration flexibility.
Two alternative solutions are based on servers from AIC in 1U and 2U rack mount servers. The 1U server can take one single slot GPU and the 2U server can take two high-end double slot GPUs. Both solutions can be configured with up to 96 GBytes main memory with one AMD 4300 series CPU per node.
Multiple servers are interconnected with NumaConnect to form one scalable monolithic system where all processors can reach all memory and GPU resources directly from the application.
The number of GPUs in a system is limited depending on the type of GPU selected. A system can be configured with more servers than the ones holding the GPUs to form systems with virtually unlimited core count and memory size.
Einar Rustad, CTO in Numascale said: “Our solution shows an easier way of handling larger GPU clusters, control from one OS eases the programming and control of the system considerably and there is potential for getting extreme application performance scaling.”
The big differentiator for NumaConnect compared to other high-speed interconnect technologies is the shared memory and cache coherency mechanisms. These features allow programs to access any memory location and any memory mapped I/O device, like a GPU, in a multiprocessor system with high degree of efficiency. It provides scalable systems with a unified programming model that stays the same from the small multi-core machines used in laptops and desktops to the largest imaginable single system image machines that may contain thousands of processors. NumaConnect also supports low latency MPI.
System administration relates to a unified system as opposed to a large number of separate images in a cluster – less effort to maintain.
Resources can be mapped and used by any processor in the system – optimal use of resources in a standard OS environment.
Process scheduling is synchronized through a single, real-time clock – avoids serialization of scheduling associated with asynchronous operating systems in a cluster and the corresponding loss of efficiency.
About Numascale
With offices in Europe, Asia, and USA, Numascale’s groundbreaking NumaConnect interconnect technology enables scalable server computer systems to be built at cluster prices. NumaConnect allows high-volume manufactured server boards to be used as building blocks for systems with features that are only found in the high-end enterprise servers. NumaConnect includes full support for virtualization of processing, memory, and I/O resources, and can be used with standard operating systems.
Numascale is supported by: Statoil, ProVenture, Investinor, Innovation Norway, Norges forskningsråd, and Eurostars.
Contact: Einar Rustad, CTO Numascale [email protected] or your local sales rep.