PNNL’s CENATE Quickly Winning Industry Support and Collaboration

By John Russell

July 6, 2016

Getting to the root of how things work has informed and progressed all aspects of scientific discovery. As computers and applications grow in complexity, seemingly poised to enter a new phase beyond the limits of Moore’s Law and CMOS technology, enlightening how they work best is paramount.

With new resources from a growing list of industry partners, the Center for Advanced Technology Evaluation – known as CENATE – a computing proving ground at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research, is rapidly expanding its capabilities to assist the high-performance computing community by providing diverse methods to steer optimal system designs and enhance overall performance. (See HPCwire article, PNNL Launches Center for Advanced Technology Evaluation)

Through its integrated approach to combining advanced concepts and technology, the CENATE measure–model–design pipeline remains unique among similar early analysis capability providers. Adolfy Hoisie, CENATE’s director and PNNL’s chief scientist for computing, cited how the CENATE technology maturity pipeline can be applied to analyzing advanced architectures that are expected to emerge from the union of diverse technologies, for example, minimizing data movement, which is a central concern in achieving optimality for performance and power.

Print

The CENATE Technology Maturity Pipeline

“Novel networking concepts, which we currently are examining with Data Vortex, are designed for extremely high bandwidths obtained through innovative topologies, while novel memory concepts, such as stacked memory, enable memory operations at extreme bandwidths and complex patterns,” he explained. “So, memories and networks can impact performance and power. Within CENATE, we link advanced concepts to assess the impact of such hypothetical architectures on DOE applications and systems. Rather than look at these as separate technologies, we can enable the next step: we link the two through modeling and simulation, experimentation, and measurement.”

The Data Vortex work is a good example of a promising new technology that is drawing attention.

Speaking at ISC 2016, Thomas Sterling, chief scientist and associate director at the Center for Research on Extreme Scale Technologies (CREST), Indiana University, noted, “The Data Vortex computer is a very different animal. It is created around a new and very different class of communication. [It’s] focused on lightweight fine grained messages, in fact very fine grained, each payload is only 64 bits with an address space available of 64 bits so that’s quite on the edge. Its high-rate, high bandwidth network [has] both low latency and its contention free.”

Sterling suggested the Data Vortex approach may be most useful as a domain specific or a domain narrow machine as there are a wide range of applications that are particularly well suited for its architecture. Exploring new technologies such as this is a central mission for CENATE.

In addition to providing a closer look at the interface between technologies and how these interactions influence system designs, CENATE’s approach uses measurement of advanced technologies combined with modeling and simulation to explore their possible impact on future large-scale HPC deployments.

Well-equipped Research Engine

CENATE recently has seen its slate of analysis equipment and testbeds expand to include advanced technologies from industry, including IBM, Mellanox, NVIDIA, Micron, Penguin Computing, and the previously noted Data Vortex Technologies.

These technologies include:

CENAT Technologies.2

CENATE also is exploring a new flexible cluster that will emulate large networks within a limited footprint, as well as combine optical circuit switching (OCS) for software-defined networking (SDN)/dynamic bandwidth allocations.

CENATE Seeks to Spread the Word

Adolfy Hoisie, CENATE’s director and PNNL’s chief scientist for computing
Adolfy Hoisie, CENATE’s director and PNNL’s chief scientist for computing

Access, outreach, and HPC community involvement are a critical part of CENATE’s research activities. The CENATE team is working on providing an access portal for the center’s instrumentation and testbeds with priority for other DOE-sponsored researchers. They are evaluating methods for disseminating research to the community (with accommodations for analysis activities conducted under non-disclosure agreements). A soon-to-be-established Advisory Board will inform some of the best practices for these mechanisms.

CENATE also benefits from interaction with large-scale, production-level computing facilities in the Molecular Science Computing capability within the Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a DOE Office of Biological and Environmental Research-sponsored user facility available for use by the global research community. Currently, EMSL is housing CENATE’s machine room, and efforts to further couple CENATE research applications with PNNL-based resources and other computing systems throughout the DOE complex are ongoing.

For more information or to access CENATE, contact Lead Scientist, Darren Kerbyson.

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!

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…

Nvidia Appoints Andy Grant as EMEA Director of Supercomputing, Higher Education, and AI

March 22, 2024

Nvidia recently appointed Andy Grant as Director, Supercomputing, Higher Education, and AI for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). With over 25 years of high-performance computing (HPC) experience, Grant brings a 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…

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…

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