Will Roadrunner Be the Cell’s Last Hurrah?

By Michael Feldman

October 27, 2009

With all the recent hoopla about GPGPU acceleration in high performance computing, it’s easy to forget that Roadrunner, the most powerful supercomputer in the world, is based on a different brand of accelerator. The machine at Los Alamos National Laboratory uses 12,960 IBM PowerXCell 8i CPUs hooked up to 6,480 AMD Opteron dual-core processors to deliver 1.1 petaflop performance on Linpack.

Because of the wide disparity in floating point performance between the PowerXCell 8i processor and the Opteron, the vast majority of Roadrunner’s floating point capability resides with the Cell processors. Each PowerXCell 8i delivers over 100 double precision gigaflops per chip, which means the Opteron only contributes about 3 percent of the FLOPS of the hybrid supercomputer.

Some of those FLOPS are already being put to good use, though. This week, Los Alamos announced that the lab had completed its “shakedown” phase for Roadrunner. Because the machine was installed in May 2008, this has allowed researchers over a year to experiment with some big science applications.

These unclassified science codes included a simulation of the expanding universe, a phylogenic exploration of the evolution of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), a simulation of laser plasma interactions for nuclear fusion, an atomic-level model of nanowires, a model of “magnetic reconnection,” and a molecular dynamics simulation of how materials behave under extreme stress. All of these codes were able to make good use of the petascale performance of the Roadrunner.

Now that the shakedown period has concluded, the NNSA will move in to claim those FLOPS for nuclear weapons simulations. Since these applications are obviously of a classified nature, we’re not likely to hear much about their specific outcomes. Open science codes will still get a crack at the machine, but since Roadrunner’s primary mission is to support US nuclear deterrence, the unclassified workloads will presumably get pushed to the back of the line.

The bigger question is what are the longer-term prospects of a hybrid x86-Cell system architecture and the Cell processor, in general, for the high performance computing realm? Unlike GPUs or FPGAs, Cell processors contain their own CPU core (a PowerPC) along with eight SIMD coprocessing units, called Synergistic Processing Elements (SPE), so the chip represents a more fully functional architecture than its competition. Despite that advantage, the Cell’s penetration into general-purpose computing has remained somewhat limited. Although the original Cell processor was the basis for the PlayStation3 gaming console and the double-precision-enhanced PowerXCell variant has found a home in HPC blades, neither version is a commodity chip in the same sense as the x86 CPU or general-purpose GPUs. The result is that Cell-based solutions are strewn rather haphazardly across the HPC landscape.

Besides the high-profile Roadrunner system, IBM also offers a standalone QS22 Cell blade, which is deployed at a handful of sites, including the Interdisciplinary Centre for Mathematical and Computational Modeling at the University of Warsaw and Repsol YPF, a Spanish oil and gas company. As it turns out, these systems are among the most energy efficient, with the Warsaw system currently sitting atop the Green500 list. Other Cell accelerator boards are available from Mercury Computer Systems, Fixstars, and Sony, but I’ve yet to hear of any notable HPC deployments resulting from these products.

Cell processor developer tools certainly exist, but no standard environment has come to the fore. This is rather important since the heterogeneous nature of the Cell architecture means programming is inherently more difficult. IBM, of course, provides its own software development kit for the architecture. Outside of Big Blue, Mercury Computer Systems has a Cell-friendly Multicore Plus SDK, and software vendor Gedae sells a compiler. RapidMind offers Cell support in its multicore development platform, but since the company was acquired by Intel, its Cell-loving days are likely coming to a close. French software maker CAPS was planning to offer Cell support in its HMPP manycore development suite sometime this year, but that hasn’t come to pass.

With NVIDIA’s Fermi GPU architecture poised to make a big entrance into high performance computing in 2010, IBM will have to make a decision about adding GPU acceleration to its existing HPC server lineup. Server rival HP has apparently already committed to including Fermi hardware in its offerings. Last week Georgia Tech announced HP and NVIDIA would be delivering a sub-petaflop supercomputer to the institute in early 2010. That system will be based on Intel Xeon servers accelerated by Fermi processors. Other HPC vendors, including Cray, have announced plans to bring Fermi into their product lines. If GPUs become the mainstream accelerator for HPC servers, IBM will be forced to follow suit.

That’s not to say IBM will give up on its home-grown Cell chip. Big Blue has a tradition of offering a smorgasbord of architectures to its customers, especially in the HPC market. Today the company has high-end server products based on x86 CPUs, Blue Gene (PowerPC-based) SoCs, Power CPUs, and the Cell processor. Adding GPU-accelerated hardware wouldn’t necessarily mean ditching the Cell.

On the other hand, IBM has to consider if it wants to reinvest in the architecture to keep up with the latest GPU performance numbers from NVIDIA and AMD, which would mean getting a single Cell processor to deliver hundreds of gigaflops of double-precision performance. IBM is certainly capable of building such a chip, but there’s little motivation to do so. With no established base of customers clamoring for Cell-equipped supercomputers and with a relatively small volume of Cell chips from which to leverage high-end parts, it’s hard to imagine that Big Blue will be doubling down on its Cell bet.

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!

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

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named Blackwell, is here and will underpin the company's AI plans this year. The chip offers performance improvements from its predecessors, including the red-hot H100 and A100 GPUs. 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. While Nvidia may not spring to mind when thinking of the quant Read more…

2024 Winter Classic: Meet the HPE Mentors

March 18, 2024

The latest installment of the 2024 Winter Classic Studio Update Show features our interview with the HPE mentor team who introduced our student teams to the joys (and potential sorrows) of the HPL (LINPACK) and accompany Read more…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the field was normalized for boys in 1969 when the Apollo 11 missi Read more…

Apple Buys DarwinAI Deepening its AI Push According to Report

March 14, 2024

Apple has purchased Canadian AI startup DarwinAI according to a Bloomberg report today. Apparently the deal was done early this year but still hasn’t been publicly announced according to the report. Apple is preparing Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimization algorithms to iteratively refine their parameters until Read more…

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

March 18, 2024

Nvidia's latest and fastest GPU, code-named 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…

Houston We Have a Solution: Addressing the HPC and Tech Talent Gap

March 15, 2024

Generations of Houstonian teachers, counselors, and parents have either worked in the aerospace industry or know people who do - the prospect of entering the fi Read more…

Survey of Rapid Training Methods for Neural Networks

March 14, 2024

Artificial neural networks are computing systems with interconnected layers that process and learn from data. During training, neural networks utilize optimizat Read more…

PASQAL Issues Roadmap to 10,000 Qubits in 2026 and Fault Tolerance in 2028

March 13, 2024

Paris-based PASQAL, a developer of neutral atom-based quantum computers, yesterday issued a roadmap for delivering systems with 10,000 physical qubits in 2026 a Read more…

India Is an AI Powerhouse Waiting to Happen, but Challenges Await

March 12, 2024

The Indian government is pushing full speed ahead to make the country an attractive technology base, especially in the hot fields of AI and semiconductors, but Read more…

Charles Tahan Exits National Quantum Coordination Office

March 12, 2024

(March 1, 2024) My first official day at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) was June 15, 2020, during the depths of the COVID-19 loc Read more…

AI Bias In the Spotlight On International Women’s Day

March 11, 2024

What impact does AI bias have on women and girls? What can people do to increase female participation in the AI field? These are some of the questions the tech 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…

Analyst Panel Says Take the Quantum Computing Plunge Now…

November 27, 2023

Should you start exploring quantum computing? Yes, said a panel of analysts convened at Tabor Communications HPC and AI on Wall Street conference earlier this y 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…

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

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…

Training of 1-Trillion Parameter Scientific AI Begins

November 13, 2023

A US national lab has started training a massive AI brain that could ultimately become the must-have computing resource for scientific researchers. Argonne N 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…

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…

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…

  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire