IBM ‘Returns to HPC’ with New Linux Server Line Says Gupta

By John Russell

October 8, 2015

IBM today launched a new line of Power8-based Linux servers – the Power LC (Linux cluster) Line – including one offering that marks IBM’s return to the HPC market, according to Sumit Gupta, vice president of HPC and OpenPOWER Operations at IBM (NYSE: IBM). Three servers were announced, aimed at cloud computing, data analytics, and HPC.

“This is important because this is our re-entry into the HPC market. This is our first OpenPOWER HPC server; it’s a very big shift for IBM when in the past we were selling these highly optimized systems, the Blue Gene system. We’ve committed to the model of standard servers with CPUs and accelerators,” said Gupta.

Gupta reinforced IBM intentions to push forcefully into big data, commercial cloud, and HPC markets, which he says are IBM’s prime targets. “This is a brand new product not just the next generation of an existing product lineup and it’s optimized for cloud, big data and HPC workloads. There are three configurations [see below]. A single socket server with lots of memory and lots of hard disks designed for big data; a second server designed for enterprise workloads, things like PostgreSQL, and the third for HPC. We are going after the entire x86 server market,” said Gupta.

IBM reports the new Power Systems LC servers were designed based on technologies and development efforts contributed by OpenPOWER Foundation partners – including Canonical, Mellanox (NASDAQ: MLNX), NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), Tyan and Wistron.

Further, Big Blue says the LC servers bring the higher performance of POWER CPUs to the broad Linux community, in particular to data analytics, cloud, and high performance computing (HPC) workloads. For example, based on IBM internal testing, a new Power Systems LC server can complete an average of select Apache Spark workloads – including analyzing Twitter feeds, streaming web page views and other data-intensive analytics – for less than half the cost of an Intel E5-2699 V3 processor-based server, providing clients with 2.3X better performance per dollar spent. Additionally, the efficient design of a Power Systems LC server allows for 94% more Spark social media workloads in the same rack space as a comparable Intel-based server. These are of course based on internal tests. (1) (2)

Generally available later this year, the Power Systems LC line of servers is being launched in three different configurations:

  • The S812LC is a 1-socket 2U system, equipped with up to 10 cores, 1TB of memory, 115GB/sec memory bandwidth, and up to 14 disk drives. The S812LC is a Linux system optimized for workloads that are memory and storage rich, such as Spark and Hadoop to provide immediate insights with incredible efficiency.
  • The 2-socket 2U Power Systems S822LC for commercial computing and high performance computing come similarly configured with up to 20 cores, 1TB of memory and 230GB/sec memory bandwidth.
  • The S822LC for high performance computing also comes with two integrated NVIDIA® Tesla® K80 GPU accelerators, the flagship offering of the NVIDIA Tesla Accelerated Computing Platform.

IBM claims the two S822LC variants will offer over 2X performance per core, 40% better price performance and more than 2X memory bandwidth (with fully configured memory) compared to similarly configured x86-based E5-2699 V3 machines. (3)

OpenPower power8_logoAs IBM ratchets up the pace of its march into the x86 dominated server world, the big question is how much traction can OpenPOWER systems gain and when will OpenPOWER systems from other vendors start to appear.

Analyst Al Gillen, IDC’s Program VP, Servers and System Software, said, “This is the billion dollar question. But the market conditions have never been better in recent history for an alternative architecture to have a viable opportunity to seize some market share. The key here is not for IBM to penetrate the x86 world but rather it is an opportunity for brand new applications, which have not yet been built and committed to an architecture, to land on Power8 Linux systems.”

An important element, said Gillen, was enticing next generation applications, applications being built on modern app frameworks, in containers, and intended for relatively OS-agnostic deployment. These application layers are making it possible for non-x86 architectures to have a viable opportunity to support new applications.

“The key will be to support the frameworks and application environments, have the appropriate partners and ecosystem products (middleware, database, container, orchestration tools, etc.) to make the Power8 platform offer a complete ecosystem so the application can run there. In other words, Power8 based Linux machines have to offer the same runtime environment that x86 servers can offer. Given that, the question comes down to performance, price performance, and TCO. If Power8 can better x86 on those metrics, it stands a real chance of gaining share,” Gillen said.

Sumit Gupta, IBM
Sumit Gupta, IBM

Gupta declined to comment on additions to the new line beyond saying IBM had shared with CORAL project participants and DOE the product roadmap. “They know about the next one and so on. Already there are 100s of HPC applications that have been ported to the power platform and optimized on the power and we are now at roughly 1900 applications total on Linux available on Power,” said Gupta

Commenting on IBM’s recent emphasis on cognitive computing, Gupta said “Fundamentally if you look at cognitive it is all about data, structured unstructured data , and deriving insight and informing action. This is precisely what power systems are built for.”

Also noteworthy is IBM Linux support. In the past, IBM gave Linux lip service on Power, said Gillen adding, “This time IBM really has put Linux front and center of its strategy in Power8. IBM is running out of chances to make Linux on Power relevant, and IBM appears to have done everything right this time around. The question is can IBM gain share with the customer segments it needs to – particularly with service providers and cloud solution providers.”

Gillen expects Chinese-built Power8 servers to be among the non-IBM servers to emerge. Closer to home, a recent blog by Aaron Sullivan, senior director and distinguished engineer, Rackspace offers ringing endorsement of OpenPOWER and discusses work on Rackspace’s planned ‘Barreleye’ OpenPOWER-based servers which will run OpenStack.

OpenPOWER now has more than 150 members worldwide. IBM contends the open model allows for rapid innovation not currently available using alternative, closed innovation methods. But encroaching into the dominant x86 world is an enormous challenge.

(1) Results are based on IBM internal testing of the average of 10 SparkBench benchmarks consisting of SQL RDD Relation, Twitter, Pageview Streaming, PageRank, Logistic Regression, SVD++, TriangleCount, SVM, MF, SQL Hive; IBM Power System S812LC 10 cores / 80 threads, POWER8, 2.9GHz, 256 GB memory, Ubuntu 15.04, Spark 1.4, OpenJDK 1.8; Intel Xeon; 24 cores / 48 threads, E5-2690 v3; 2.3GHz , 256 GB memory. Ubuntu 15.04, Spark 1.4, OpenJDK 1.8; Pricing is based on HW list prices of Intel-based server and estimated prices of IBM Power S812LC and both include the OS

(2) Power System S812LC and Intel server are 2U servers.

(3) Results are based on IBM internal testing of single system running multiple virtual machines with pgbench select only work load and are current as of October 5, 2015. Performance figures are based on running a 300 scale factor. Individual results will vary depending on individual workloads, configurations and conditions; IBM Power System S822LC; 16 cores / 128 threads, POWER8; 3.6GHz, 256 GB memory, PostgreSQL 9.5 Alpha2, RHEL 7.1, PowerKVM; Competitive stack: 36 cores / 72 threads; Intel E5-2699 v3; 2.3 GHz; 256 GB memory, PostgreSQL 9.5 Aplha2, RHEL 7.1, RHEV

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

Be the most informed person in the room! Stay ahead of the tech trends with industry updates delivered to you every week!

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion XL — were added to the benchmark suite as MLPerf continues Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing power it brings to artificial intelligence.  Nvidia's DGX Read more…

Call for Participation in Workshop on Potential NSF CISE Quantum Initiative

March 26, 2024

Editor’s Note: Next month there will be a workshop to discuss what a quantum initiative led by NSF’s Computer, Information Science and Engineering (CISE) directorate could entail. The details are posted below in a Ca Read more…

Waseda U. Researchers Reports New Quantum Algorithm for Speeding Optimization

March 25, 2024

Optimization problems cover a wide range of applications and are often cited as good candidates for quantum computing. However, the execution time for constrained combinatorial optimization applications on quantum device Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at the network layer threatens to make bigger and brawnier pro Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HBM3E memory as well as the the ability to train 1 trillion pa Read more…

MLPerf Inference 4.0 Results Showcase GenAI; Nvidia Still Dominates

March 28, 2024

There were no startling surprises in the latest MLPerf Inference benchmark (4.0) results released yesterday. Two new workloads — Llama 2 and Stable Diffusion Read more…

Q&A with Nvidia’s Chief of DGX Systems on the DGX-GB200 Rack-scale System

March 27, 2024

Pictures of Nvidia's new flagship mega-server, the DGX GB200, on the GTC show floor got favorable reactions on social media for the sheer amount of computing po Read more…

NVLink: Faster Interconnects and Switches to Help Relieve Data Bottlenecks

March 25, 2024

Nvidia’s new Blackwell architecture may have stolen the show this week at the GPU Technology Conference in San Jose, California. But an emerging bottleneck at Read more…

Who is David Blackwell?

March 22, 2024

During GTC24, co-founder and president of NVIDIA Jensen Huang unveiled the Blackwell GPU. This GPU itself is heavily optimized for AI work, boasting 192GB of HB Read more…

Nvidia Looks to Accelerate GenAI Adoption with NIM

March 19, 2024

Today at the GPU Technology Conference, Nvidia launched a new offering aimed at helping customers quickly deploy their generative AI applications in a secure, s Read more…

The Generative AI Future Is Now, Nvidia’s Huang Says

March 19, 2024

We are in the early days of a transformative shift in how business gets done thanks to the advent of generative AI, according to Nvidia CEO and cofounder Jensen Read more…

Nvidia’s New Blackwell GPU Can Train AI Models with Trillions of Parameters

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, codenamed Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from Read more…

Nvidia Showcases Quantum Cloud, Expanding Quantum Portfolio at GTC24

March 18, 2024

Nvidia’s barrage of quantum news at GTC24 this week includes new products, signature collaborations, and a new Nvidia Quantum Cloud for quantum developers. Wh Read more…

Alibaba Shuts Down its Quantum Computing Effort

November 30, 2023

In case you missed it, China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba has shut down its quantum computing research effort. It’s not entirely clear what drove the change. Read more…

Nvidia H100: Are 550,000 GPUs Enough for This Year?

August 17, 2023

The GPU Squeeze continues to place a premium on Nvidia H100 GPUs. In a recent Financial Times article, Nvidia reports that it expects to ship 550,000 of its lat Read more…

Shutterstock 1285747942

AMD’s Horsepower-packed MI300X GPU Beats Nvidia’s Upcoming H200

December 7, 2023

AMD and Nvidia are locked in an AI performance battle – much like the gaming GPU performance clash the companies have waged for decades. AMD has claimed it Read more…

DoD Takes a Long View of Quantum Computing

December 19, 2023

Given the large sums tied to expensive weapon systems – think $100-million-plus per F-35 fighter – it’s easy to forget the U.S. Department of Defense is a Read more…

Synopsys Eats Ansys: Does HPC Get Indigestion?

February 8, 2024

Recently, it was announced that Synopsys is buying HPC tool developer Ansys. Started in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1970 as Swanson Analysis Systems, Inc. (SASI) by John Swanson (and eventually renamed), Ansys serves the CAE (Computer Aided Engineering)/multiphysics engineering simulation market. Read more…

Choosing the Right GPU for LLM Inference and Training

December 11, 2023

Accelerating the training and inference processes of deep learning models is crucial for unleashing their true potential and NVIDIA GPUs have emerged as a game- Read more…

Intel’s Server and PC Chip Development Will Blur After 2025

January 15, 2024

Intel's dealing with much more than chip rivals breathing down its neck; it is simultaneously integrating a bevy of new technologies such as chiplets, artificia Read more…

Baidu Exits Quantum, Closely Following Alibaba’s Earlier Move

January 5, 2024

Reuters reported this week that Baidu, China’s giant e-commerce and services provider, is exiting the quantum computing development arena. Reuters reported � Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

Comparing NVIDIA A100 and NVIDIA L40S: Which GPU is Ideal for AI and Graphics-Intensive Workloads?

October 30, 2023

With long lead times for the NVIDIA H100 and A100 GPUs, many organizations are looking at the new NVIDIA L40S GPU, which it’s a new GPU optimized for AI and g Read more…

Shutterstock 1179408610

Google Addresses the Mysteries of Its Hypercomputer 

December 28, 2023

When Google launched its Hypercomputer earlier this month (December 2023), the first reaction was, "Say what?" It turns out that the Hypercomputer is Google's t Read more…

AMD MI3000A

How AMD May Get Across the CUDA Moat

October 5, 2023

When discussing GenAI, the term "GPU" almost always enters the conversation and the topic often moves toward performance and access. Interestingly, the word "GPU" is assumed to mean "Nvidia" products. (As an aside, the popular Nvidia hardware used in GenAI are not technically... Read more…

Shutterstock 1606064203

Meta’s Zuckerberg Puts Its AI Future in the Hands of 600,000 GPUs

January 25, 2024

In under two minutes, Meta's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, laid out the company's AI plans, which included a plan to build an artificial intelligence system with the eq Read more…

Google Introduces ‘Hypercomputer’ to Its AI Infrastructure

December 11, 2023

Google ran out of monikers to describe its new AI system released on December 7. Supercomputer perhaps wasn't an apt description, so it settled on Hypercomputer Read more…

China Is All In on a RISC-V Future

January 8, 2024

The state of RISC-V in China was discussed in a recent report released by the Jamestown Foundation, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. The report, entitled "E Read more…

Intel Won’t Have a Xeon Max Chip with New Emerald Rapids CPU

December 14, 2023

As expected, Intel officially announced its 5th generation Xeon server chips codenamed Emerald Rapids at an event in New York City, where the focus was really o Read more…

IBM Quantum Summit: Two New QPUs, Upgraded Qiskit, 10-year Roadmap and More

December 4, 2023

IBM kicks off its annual Quantum Summit today and will announce a broad range of advances including its much-anticipated 1121-qubit Condor QPU, a smaller 133-qu Read more…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire