News [Toms] Beyond Rome: AMD's EPYC and Radeon to Power World's Fastest Exascale Supercomputer

[DisEnchantment]

Another win for AMD

https://insidehpc.com/2019/06/cray-to-build-big-red-200-supercomputer-for-indiana-university/

2nd Generation EPYC - Rome

5.9 Petaflops

Not so big project though. Probably they will use off the shelf components.

 

[Ackmed]

Yeah.... once again my work has the fastest computer in the world. Snazzy title, but bragging rights are nice.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Obligatory

But can it run Crysis?!?!?

You're welcome.

 

[Asterox]

Another win for AMD

https://insidehpc.com/2019/06/cray-to-build-big-red-200-supercomputer-for-indiana-university/

2nd Generation EPYC - Rome

5.9 Petaflops

Not so big project though. Probably they will use off the shelf components.

Big or smaller project, this is an obvious indication that Epyc 2/price=performance is only logical one choise for server or supercomputer project.

Who wants/needs Intel server CPU+several security holes or performanse drop or IPC downgrade.

Here is another one 5.9 petaflops Epyc 2 supercomputer from Norway.

- 172 032 Epyc 2 Cores

- 225W TDP, 2.2ghz, logicaly for one 64/128 Epyc 2 Rome CPU

https://www.sigma2.no/content/tidenes-kraftigste-norske-superdatamaskin-til-forskere

 

[DrMrLordX]

@Asterox

Good find. Curious about those 225W 2.2 GHz EPYC 2 chips though. You wouldn't think the TDP would be that high . . . should be 180W, unless it's just extra IF traffic bloating the TDP.

 

[itsmydamnation]

@Asterox

Good find. Curious about those 225W 2.2 GHz EPYC 2 chips though. You wouldn't think the TDP would be that high . . . should be 180W, unless it's just extra IF traffic bloating the TDP.

It's potentially 4times more data in movement, so doesn't seem that bad.

 

[Asterox]

@Asterox

Good find. Curious about those 225W 2.2 GHz EPYC 2 chips though. You wouldn't think the TDP would be that high . . . should be 180W, unless it's just extra IF traffic bloating the TDP.

Well it is not that important. Still it is 64/128 X86 CPU, or TDP above 200-250W is more that expected even on 7nm.

Last year announced "HLRS Hawk supercomputer system from Germany", they are listed 2.35ghz for Epyc 2 CPU but without TDP details.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/13598/amd-64-core-rome-deployment-hlrs-hawk-at-235-ghz

 

[Karnak]

@Asterox

Good find. Curious about those 225W 2.2 GHz EPYC 2 chips though. You wouldn't think the TDP would be that high . . . should be 180W, unless it's just extra IF traffic bloating the TDP.

The 7601 is AMD's actual flagship with 32C/64T (and 2.2GHz base) with a 180W TDP. Now you have the same base clock at 2.2GHz but double the cores/threads and just a 45W TDP increase. That's pretty damn good.

 

[DrMrLordX]

That's pretty damn good.

It is but it isn't. AMD has been able to expand their core count (Intel has not) so that is a major win for AMD. We don't know anything about boost clocks though. @itsmydamnation makes a good point, regardless. Interconnects get expensive in terms of cost and power usage as you ramp up core count. Keeping it all in one socket is not easy.

That being said, I would expect that increasing the TDP rating to accommodate for higher IF power usage means that boost clocks won't affect actual power usage all that much more than they did on older EPYC chips. There will be high idle for the Rome chip (thanks to IF being a power leech at pretty much any clockspeed) but lower-than-expected increases in power usage as clocks increase. For any CPU that's actually going to be doing something for most of its life, it's not going to be that big of a problem.

 

[Asterox]

Another one AMD Epyc powered supercomputer is coming from Germany.

In this case it is based on EPYC 7601 CPU or 147,200 cores.Future upgrades with Epyc 2 Rome is expected or very logical choice.

https://www.finanznachrichten.de/na...r-for-the-german-aerospace-center-dlr-011.htm

 

[NostaSeronx]

In this case it is based on EPYC 7601 CPU or 147,200 cores.Future upgrades with Epyc 2 Rome is expected or very logical choice.

2300 compute boards * 2 processors * 32 cores => 147,200 cores.
Rome => 147,200 * 2 => 294,400 cores, if boards are the same and processor counts are the same.

 

[moinmoin]

"All told, the supercomputer is projected to be the most expensive machine ever built and be faster than the top 160 supercomputers in the world, combined."

Pure insanity. Congratulations to AMD (semi-custom business?) for wining this contract.

Cutress' full interview with Norrod confirms that the semi custom business division was at least partially involved (and the Epyc chip used in the project is a customized die not for sale):

IC: Would you classify it as coming from the semi-custom division?

Forrest Norrod: You know, there's a blurred line there, the some of the semi-custom resources are working on it. Here's one way to put it - we slot engineers around between the semi-custom group and the Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Group.