ARM Waving: Attention, Deployments, and Development

By John Russell

January 18, 2017

It’s been a heady two weeks for the ARM HPC advocacy camp. At this week’s Mont-Blanc Project meeting held at the Barcelona Supercomputer Center, Cray announced plans to build an ARM-based supercomputer in the U.K. while Mont-Blanc selected Cavium’s ThunderX2 ARM chip for its third phase of development. Last week, France’s CEA and Japan’s RIKEN announced a deep collaboration aimed largely at fostering the ARM ecosystem. This activity follows a busy 2016 when SoftBank acquired ARM, OpenHPC announced ARM support, ARM released its SVE spec, Fujistu chose ARM for the post K machine, and ARM acquired HPC tool provider Allinea in December.

The pieces of an HPC ecosystem for ARM seem to be sliding, albeit unevenly, into place. Market traction in terms of HPC product still seems far off – there needs to be product available after all – but the latest announcements suggest growing momentum in sorting out the needed components for potential ARM-based HPC offerings. Plenty of obstacles remain – Fujitsu’s much-discussed ARM-based post K computer schedule has been delayed amid suggestions that processor issues are the main cause. Nevertheless interest in ARM for HPC is rising.

The biggest splash at this week’s Mont-Blanc project meeting was announcement of Cray’s plans to build a massive ARM supercomputer for the GW4 consortium (GW4) in the U.K. On first glance, it looks to be the first production ARM-based supercomputer. Named Isambard after the Victorian engineer Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the new system is scheduled for delivering in the March-December 2017 timeframe. Importantly, Isambard “will provide multiple advanced architectures within the same system in order to enable evaluation and comparison across a diverse range of hardware platforms.”

Project leader and professor of HPC at the University of Bristol, Simon McIntosh-Smith, said “Scientists have a growing choice of potential computer architectures to choose from, including new 64-bit ARM CPUs, graphics processors, and many-core CPUs from Intel. Choosing the best architecture for an application can be a difficult task, so the new Isambard GW4 Tier 2 HPC service aims to provide access to a wide range of the most promising emerging architectures, all using the same software stack. [It’s] a unique system that will enable direct ‘apples-to-apples’ comparisons across architectures, thus enabling UK scientists to better understand which architecture best suits their application.”

Here’s a quick Isambard snapshot:

  • Cray CS-400 system
  • 10,000+ 64-bit ARMv8 cores
  • HPC optimized stack
  • Be used to compare x86, Knights Landing, and Pascal processors
  • Cost £4.7 million over three years

The specific ARM chip planned for use was not named although the speculation is it’s likely to be a Cavium. The new machine will be hosted by the U.K. Met (climate/weather forecasting) agency. Paul Selwood, Manager for HPC Optimization at the Met Office said: “This system will enable us, in co-operation with our partners, to accelerate insights into how our weather and climate models need to be adapted for these emerging CPU architectures,” in the release announcing the project. The GW4 Alliance brings together four leading research-intensive universities: Bath, Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter.

The second splash at the BSC meeting was perhaps less spectacular but also important. The Mont-Blanc project has been percolating along since 2011. A smaller prototype was stood up in 2015 and it seems clear much of Europe is hoping that ARM-based processors will offer an HPC alternative and greater European control over its exascale efforts. Cavium’s ThunderX2 chip – a 64-bit ARMv8-A server processor that’s compliant with ARMv8-A architecture specifications and ARM SBSA and SBBR standards – will power the third phase prototype.

Mont-Blanc, of course, is the European effort to explore how ARM can be practically scaled for larger machines including future exascale systems. Atos/Bull is the primary contractor. The third phase of the Mont-Blanc project seeks to:

  • Define the architecture of an Exascale-class compute node based on the ARM architecture, and capable of being manufactured at industrial scale.
  • Assess the available options for maximum compute efficiency.
  • Develop the matching software ecosystem to pave the way for market acceptance.

The CEA-Riken collaboration announced last week is yet another ARM ecosystem momentum builder. “We are committed to building the ARM-based ecosystems and we want to send that message to those who are related to ARM so that those people will be excited in getting in contact with us,” said Shig Okaya, director, Flagship 2020, and a project leader for the CEA-RIKEN effort. It will, among other things, focus on and programming languages, execution materials, and work schedulers optimized for energy. Co-development of codes and code sharing are big parts of the deal. (HPCwire covers the CEA-RIKEN partnership in greater detail here).

Whether the increased attention on ARM will translate into success beyond the mobile and SOC world where it is now a dominant player isn’t clear. One of CEA’s goals is to compare ARM with a range or architectures to determine which performs best and for which workloads. Many market watchers are wary of ARM’s potential in HPC, which is still a relatively small market. Then again, less success in HPC wouldn’t necessarily rule out success in traditional servers. We’ll see.

Subscribe to HPCwire's Weekly Update!

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

SCA23: Pawsey’s Mark Stickells on Sustainable Australian Supercomputing

March 17, 2023

“While the need for supercomputing is great, we have, in my view, reached a tipping point,” said Mark Stickells, executive director of Australia’s Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, as he opened his keynote (“Energy E Read more…

Optical I/O Technology Needed for Zettascale, Say Top Chipmakers

March 16, 2023

Optical I/O is being singled out by top companies to push computing beyond exascale and into zettascale. The technology was singled out in a recent speech by AMD CEO Lisa Su as a critical technology to reach zettascale c Read more…

Tasty CHIPS – New MEC Program to Expand US Prototyping Capabilities Gains Steam

March 16, 2023

Sometime later this year, perhaps around July, the Department of Defense is expected to announce the sites and focus of up to nine hubs associated with the Microelectronics Commons (MEC) program. Funded and broadly descr Read more…

2023 Winter Classic: Mentor Interview, HPE

March 14, 2023

In our most recent update, “Triumph and Tragedy with HPL/HPCG”, we detailed how our dozen 2023 Winter Classic Invitational cluster competition teams dealt with their Linpack/HPCG module, mentored by HPE. In this episode of our incredibly popular 2023 Winter Classic Studio Update Show, we... Read more…

Leibniz QIC’s Mission to Coax Qubits and Bits to Work Together

March 14, 2023

Four years after passing the U.S. National Quantum Initiative Act and decades after early quantum development and commercialization efforts started – think D-Wave Systems and IBM, for example – the U.S. quantum lands Read more…

AWS Solution Channel

Shutterstock 1679096101

Building a 4x faster and more scalable algorithm using AWS Batch for Amazon Logistics

Amazon Logistics’ science team created an algorithm to improve the efficiency of their supply-chain by improving planning decisions. Initially the algorithm was implemented in a sequential way using a monolithic architecture executed on a single high performance computational node on AWS Cloud. Read more…

 

Get the latest on AI innovation at NVIDIA GTC

Join Microsoft at NVIDIA GTC, a free online global technology conference, March 20 – 23 to learn how organizations of any size can power AI innovation with purpose-built cloud infrastructure from Microsoft. Read more…

Pawsey Supercomputing Targets Detailed Regional Climate Projections

March 13, 2023

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre in Australia is putting its shiny new Setonix supercomputer (ranked fourth on the most recent Top500 list) to work on an important climate change research project. The project, led by Jat Read more…

SCA23: Pawsey’s Mark Stickells on Sustainable Australian Supercomputing

March 17, 2023

“While the need for supercomputing is great, we have, in my view, reached a tipping point,” said Mark Stickells, executive director of Australia’s Pawsey Read more…

Optical I/O Technology Needed for Zettascale, Say Top Chipmakers

March 16, 2023

Optical I/O is being singled out by top companies to push computing beyond exascale and into zettascale. The technology was singled out in a recent speech by AM Read more…

Tasty CHIPS – New MEC Program to Expand US Prototyping Capabilities Gains Steam

March 16, 2023

Sometime later this year, perhaps around July, the Department of Defense is expected to announce the sites and focus of up to nine hubs associated with the Micr Read more…

Leibniz QIC’s Mission to Coax Qubits and Bits to Work Together

March 14, 2023

Four years after passing the U.S. National Quantum Initiative Act and decades after early quantum development and commercialization efforts started – think D- Read more…

Intel Hopes to Stop Server Beating from AMD Next Year

March 13, 2023

After getting bruised in servers by AMD, Intel hopes to stop the bleeding in the server market with next year's chip offerings. The difference-making products will be Sierra Forest and Granite Rapids, which are due out in 2024, said Dave Zinsner, chief financial officer at Intel, last week at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom conference. Read more…

White House Budget Request Includes Funding for Leadership-Class Computing Facility

March 10, 2023

The U.S. government is dedicating a record amount of $25 billion as part of the 2024 budget to emerging technologies as the country looks to counter the technology threat from China. The budget includes billions of dollars earmarked to boost the supercomputing infrastructure, semiconductors, and cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and quantum computing. The technology... Read more…

Inside NCSA’s Nightingale Cluster, Designed for Sensitive Data

March 10, 2023

The emergence of Covid in 2020 saw an explosion in HPC-powered health research. As the pandemic raged on, though, one limiting factor became increasingly clear: Read more…

Top HPC Players: It’s Time to Get Serious About Security

March 9, 2023

Time’s up: nearly everyone agrees it’s about time to become serious about bringing security safeguards to high-performance computing systems, which has been Read more…

CORNELL I-WAY DEMONSTRATION PITS PARASITE AGAINST VICTIM

October 6, 1995

Ithaca, NY --Visitors to this year's Supercomputing '95 (SC'95) conference will witness a life-and-death struggle between parasite and victim, using virtual Read more…

SGI POWERS VIRTUAL OPERATING ROOM USED IN SURGEON TRAINING

October 6, 1995

Surgery simulations to date have largely been created through the development of dedicated applications requiring considerable programming and computer graphi Read more…

U.S. Will Relax Export Restrictions on Supercomputers

October 6, 1995

New York, NY -- U.S. President Bill Clinton has announced that he will definitely relax restrictions on exports of high-performance computers, giving a boost Read more…

Dutch HPC Center Will Have 20 GFlop, 76-Node SP2 Online by 1996

October 6, 1995

Amsterdam, the Netherlands -- SARA, (Stichting Academisch Rekencentrum Amsterdam), Academic Computing Services of Amsterdam recently announced that it has pur Read more…

Cray Delivers J916 Compact Supercomputer to Solvay Chemical

October 6, 1995

Eagan, Minn. -- Cray Research Inc. has delivered a Cray J916 low-cost compact supercomputer and Cray's UniChem client/server computational chemistry software Read more…

NEC Laboratory Reviews First Year of Cooperative Projects

October 6, 1995

Sankt Augustin, Germany -- NEC C&C (Computers and Communication) Research Laboratory at the GMD Technopark has wrapped up its first year of operation. Read more…

Sun and Sybase Say SQL Server 11 Benchmarks at 4544.60 tpmC

October 6, 1995

Mountain View, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Sybase, Inc. recently announced the first benchmark results for SQL Server 11. The result represents a n Read more…

New Study Says Parallel Processing Market Will Reach $14B in 1999

October 6, 1995

Mountain View, Calif. -- A study by the Palo Alto Management Group (PAMG) indicates the market for parallel processing systems will increase at more than 4 Read more…

Leading Solution Providers

Contributors

CORNELL I-WAY DEMONSTRATION PITS PARASITE AGAINST VICTIM

October 6, 1995

Ithaca, NY --Visitors to this year's Supercomputing '95 (SC'95) conference will witness a life-and-death struggle between parasite and victim, using virtual Read more…

SGI POWERS VIRTUAL OPERATING ROOM USED IN SURGEON TRAINING

October 6, 1995

Surgery simulations to date have largely been created through the development of dedicated applications requiring considerable programming and computer graphi Read more…

U.S. Will Relax Export Restrictions on Supercomputers

October 6, 1995

New York, NY -- U.S. President Bill Clinton has announced that he will definitely relax restrictions on exports of high-performance computers, giving a boost Read more…

Dutch HPC Center Will Have 20 GFlop, 76-Node SP2 Online by 1996

October 6, 1995

Amsterdam, the Netherlands -- SARA, (Stichting Academisch Rekencentrum Amsterdam), Academic Computing Services of Amsterdam recently announced that it has pur Read more…

Cray Delivers J916 Compact Supercomputer to Solvay Chemical

October 6, 1995

Eagan, Minn. -- Cray Research Inc. has delivered a Cray J916 low-cost compact supercomputer and Cray's UniChem client/server computational chemistry software Read more…

NEC Laboratory Reviews First Year of Cooperative Projects

October 6, 1995

Sankt Augustin, Germany -- NEC C&C (Computers and Communication) Research Laboratory at the GMD Technopark has wrapped up its first year of operation. Read more…

Sun and Sybase Say SQL Server 11 Benchmarks at 4544.60 tpmC

October 6, 1995

Mountain View, Calif. -- Sun Microsystems, Inc. and Sybase, Inc. recently announced the first benchmark results for SQL Server 11. The result represents a n Read more…

New Study Says Parallel Processing Market Will Reach $14B in 1999

October 6, 1995

Mountain View, Calif. -- A study by the Palo Alto Management Group (PAMG) indicates the market for parallel processing systems will increase at more than 4 Read more…

SC22 Booth Videos

AMD @ SC22
Altair @ SC22
AWS @ SC22
Ayar Labs @ SC22
CoolIT @ SC22
Cornelis Networks @ SC22
DDN @ SC22
Dell Technologies @ SC22
HPE @ SC22
Intel @ SC22
Intelligent Light @ SC22
Lancium @ SC22
Lenovo @ SC22
Microsoft and NVIDIA @ SC22
One Stop Systems @ SC22
Penguin Solutions @ SC22
QCT @ SC22
Supermicro @ SC22
Tuxera @ SC22
Tyan Computer @ SC22
  • arrow
  • Click Here for More Headlines
  • arrow
HPCwire