Optimized architecture enhances exascale environments
Frontier features 3rd generation AMD EPYC CPUs optimized for high-performance computing and AI and the AMD Instinct MI250X accelerator, both specifically designed for exascale environments. According to Malaya, AMD's researchers and engineers have built on the company's more than 50-year history of developing processors with outstanding performance.
They have added special architectural features to greatly improve performance. "We had to improve our hardware, we had to improve our software, and we also worked with end users and domain scientists to improve their algorithms," he says.
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Optimizing supercomputers' algorithms to reduce data movement—specifically, moving less—reduces energy consumption significantly, he said, without sacrificing computing power.
"The fact that the world's fastest machine is also the most energy efficient is surprising," ORNL laboratory director Thomas Zakaria said at a press conference in May.
Supercomputing technology can be scaled to other systems
The technology behind Frontier's speed and power efficiency is scalable to other architectures, Malaya said. For example, optimized code used to modify the software that drives the algorithm is available so that "anyone with AMD hardware can use these algorithms," he added.
And while Frontier consists of more than 9,000 nodes, 1 CPU block and 4 GPUs, the system components are available to other companies, "so they can own all the optimizations, all the software and all the work we do." ." ". It's a very scalable solution,” he said.
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Most large data centers rely on similar CPUs and GPUs to do their work. The technology is also important for artificial intelligence and machine learning projects.
"Working with Frontier helps us work on the next generation of products that we believe will be more efficient, perform better and be available across the industry," said Mahesh Balasubramanian, Director of Product Marketing for AMD's GPU Accelerated Division.
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