SEATTLE, Wash. and SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Nov. 14 — At the 2016 Supercomputing Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. (Nasdaq: CRAY) today announced it has achieved acceptance for “Theta,” the Cray XC40 supercomputer, as well as a Cray Sonexion 3000 storage system, located at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science User Facility at Argonne National Laboratory. The Theta system marks Cray and Intel’s first acceptance for a large-scale supercomputer featuring the latest generation of Intel Xeon Phi processors formerly code named “Knights Landing.”
Theta has a peak performance of more than eight petaflops, and is currently running a broad range of scientific applications through the ALCF’s Theta Early Science Program. The Cray XC40 system was delivered to Argonne National Laboratory through a partnership with Intel as part of the DOE’s initiative to build state-of-the art supercomputers through the Collaboration of Oak Ridge, Argonne, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (CORAL) program.
“The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility is committed to providing advanced supercomputing resources, like the Theta system, that help our researchers solve some of the world’s largest and most complex problems,” said Rick Stevens, Associate Laboratory Director for Argonne National Laboratory. “We are pleased that Theta is now accelerating our scientific research.”
Cray, in partnership with Intel, will also deliver a flagship system called “Aurora” as part of the CORAL program. Aurora will be based on the next-generation Cray supercomputer code named “Shasta,” the successor to the current, industry-leading Cray XC line of supercomputers. Aurora is expected to have a peak performance of 180 petaflops and is scheduled for delivery in 2018.
“The acceptance of Theta is a significant milestone for Cray and Intel as we continue to work towards the installation and acceptance of several Cray supercomputers with the new Intel Xeon Phi processors,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “Our collaboration with Intel and Argonne is focused on producing powerful supercomputers for the DOE user community. The Theta system is exciting step forward in our partnership, and one that I know many other supercomputer centers around the world are watching as they evaluate this new processor technology for their next mission-critical system.”
Cray is a leader in deploying supercomputers with the Intel Xeon Phi processors, and several top supercomputing centers have signed large contracts for Cray XC supercomputers with Intel’s new processor. These systems include the “Cori” system at the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC); the “Trinity” system at the National Nuclear Security Administration; and the Cray XC40 supercomputer at the Academic Center for Computing and Media Studies at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan.
“The Theta supercomputer at Argonne is an important step in the CORAL project and a milestone on the path towards the Aurora system,” said Dr. Rajeeb Hazra, Vice President of the Data Center group and General Manager of the Enterprise and Government group at Intel. “The combination of Intel’s leading technology, latest Intel Xeon Phi processor technology, codenamed Knights Landing, Intel Scalable System Framework, and Cray’s system capabilities is helping to drive scientific discoveries and engineering breakthroughs.”
For more information on the Cray XC supercomputers and Cray Sonexion storage systems, please visit the Cray website at www.cray.com.
About Cray Inc.
Global supercomputing leader Cray Inc. (Nasdaq: CRAY) provides innovative systems and solutions enabling scientists and engineers in industry, academia and government to meet existing and future simulation and analytics challenges. Leveraging more than 40 years of experience in developing and servicing the world’s most advanced supercomputers, Cray offers a comprehensive portfolio of supercomputers and big data storage and analytics solutions delivering unrivaled performance, efficiency and scalability. Cray’s Adaptive Supercomputing vision is focused on delivering innovative next-generation products that integrate diverse processing technologies into a unified architecture, allowing customers to meet the market’s continued demand for realized performance. Go to www.cray.com for more information.
Source: Cray