Japan Unveils Details of 25 PFLOPS Machine to be Operational in December 2016

By John Russell

May 10, 2016

It’s a good day to be Intel, Data Direct Networks (DDN), and Fujitsu. The Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing (JCAHPC) in Japan today released the details of its next generation supercomputer – Oakforest-PACS – which will deliver 25 PFLOPS, use Intel’s Xeon Phi (Knights Landing) manycore processors and Omni-Path Architecture, be built by Fujitsu, and be operational in December 2016.

When fired up, the Oakforest-PACS will be the fastest supercomputer system in Japan for the moment. Twenty-five PFLOPS would have taken the second spot on the TOP500 last November – ahead of Titan (DoE/Oak Ridge NL, 17.5 PFLOPS) but still short of Tianhe-2 (National Supercomputer Center, Guangzhou, 33.8 PFLOPS). There has been speculation that China will field two 100 PFLOPS machines this year, perhaps having one benchmarked in time for the June TOP500.

You may recall that JCAHPC was established in 2013 under agreement between the Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba (CCS) and the Information Technology Center, the University of Tokyo (ITC). JCAHPC consists of more than 20 faculty and staff members from both CCS and ITC. The primary mission of JCAHPC is designing, installing and operating the Post T2K System (Oakforest-PACS). CCS and ITC will cooperate for the procurement, installation and operation of the Oakforest-PACS under JCAHPC agreement.

The details of the system incude:

  • “The Oakforest-PACS system has of 8,208 compute nodes, each of which consists of next-generation Intel Xeon Phi processor (code name: Knights Landing), and Intel Omni-Path Architecture (Intel OPA) as a high-performance interconnect, which is a brand-new fabric developed by Intel Corporation. This is the first large scale system with such a processor in Japan. The system is integrated by Fujitsu and its PRIMERGY server is employed as each of compute node. Additionally, the system employs the shared files system (capacity: 26 PB), and the fast file cache system (940 TB), both of which are provided by Data Direct Network (DDN).
  • “Peak performance of the Oakforest-PACS is 25 PFLOPS and the total memory capacity is more than 900 TB. All compute nodes and servers of file systems are connected by fat-tree topology based on Intel OPA, which provides full bisection bandwidth. Therefore, flexible and efficient utilization and operation of compute nodes and file systems is available. Moreover, the fast file cache system is equipped with SSD’s and it is suitable for such applications that require higher file I/O performance.”

According to Robert Triendl, SVP at DDN, “The storage environment will consist of multiple shared file system, using DDN’s branch of the Intel Enterprise Edition of Lustre (IEEL) and DDN’s next generation ES14KX Lustre SSU, and providing up to 400 GB/sec of peak Lustre bandwidth. The shared file system will be enhanced by an NVMe-based distributed flash caching layer provided by 25 of DDN’s new IME14KX caching appliance with a total capacity of 940 TB and a peak performance of up to 1.4 TB/sec.”

Fujitsu has taken pains to conserve energy and space use. Oakforest-PACS will be a high-density system with a compact physical footprint, with eight nodes fitting into a 2U rackmount chassis. Advanced “hot water” cooling technology is used to supply cooling water to all the system’s components, each of which have different optimum temperatures. In this way efficient cooling at low power is achieved.

Fujitsu will also supply an HPC middleware, the FUJITSU Software Technical Computing Suite, to ensure the efficient job scheduling and overall system management. The system will deliver maximum performance by utilizing Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories’ performance tuning technology.

For Intel, the announcement is more evidence of traction for Omni-Path in the market place (see HPCwire article, Omni-Path Steadily Gaining Market Traction Says Intel) which is vying for sway with Mellanox’s Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) InfiniBand. (see HPCwire article, The Ultimate Debate – Interconnect Offloading) Versus Onloading).

“We’re pleased that the Universities of Tokyo and Tsukuba have chosen Fujitsu Primergy for their post-T2K leadership supercomputing system,” said Charles Wuischpard, vice president of the Data Center Group and general manager of High Performance Computing Platform Group at Intel Corporation. “Based on elements from the Intel Scalable System Framework, the system combines the highly parallel performance of next generation Intel Xeon Phi processors with the scalability of the Intel Omni-Path Architecture to deliver a highly efficient design.  We look forward to the countless discoveries

When up and running, Oakforest-PACS will be available to researchers in Japan and their international collaborators through various types of programs operated by the High-Performance Computing Infrastructure, by MEXT’s Joint Usage/Research Centers, and by each of CCS and ITC under their original supercomputer resource sharing programs.

According to the release, the new supercomputer is expected to contribute to development of new frontiers in various domains including computational science and engineering (CSE). The Oakforest-PACS will be also utilized for education and training of students and young researchers in both of CSE and high-performance computing (HPC).

The Oakforest-PACS machine will be installed at the Kashiwa Research Complex II building in the Kashiwa-no-Ha (Oakleaf) campus, the University of Tokyo.

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