This month Cray’s Titan supercomputer has claimed the title for the world’s fastest, beating the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Sequoia supercomputer, which previously held the first place position.
The latest Cray supercomputer named Titan is powered by a combination of CPUs and GPUs, which feature 18,688 nodes, each of which contains an AMD 16-core Opteron and a NVIDIA Tesla K20X GPU accelerator, equating to a massive 560,640 processors in total.
Unprecedented Computational Power
The 560,640 processors are capable of generating 17.59 quadrillion operations per second, beating the Sequoia supercomputer, which was only able to manage a measly 16.32 quadrillion operations a second. This leap in computational power is not just a matter of national pride but a significant step forward in the realm of scientific research and technological advancement.
“It’s not practical or affordable to continue increasing supercomputing capacity with traditional CPU-only architecture,” said ORNL’s Jeff Nichols, in a press release. “Combining GPUs and CPUs is a responsible move toward lowering our carbon footprint, and Titan will enable scientific leadership by providing unprecedented computing power for research in energy, climate change, materials, and other disciplines.”
Applications and Impact
The Cray Titan supercomputer has been built to help research materials, nuclear energy research, and investigate ways to re-design traditional combustion engines to make them more efficient. This supercomputer is expected to play a crucial role in various scientific domains. For instance, in climate science, Titan can simulate complex climate models to predict future climate changes with higher accuracy. In the field of materials science, it can help in discovering new materials with unique properties that could revolutionize industries ranging from electronics to aerospace.
Moreover, Titan’s computational prowess is not limited to theoretical research. It has practical applications in the medical field as well. For example, it can be used to simulate the behavior of complex biological systems, aiding in the development of new drugs and treatments. The ability to process vast amounts of data quickly makes it an invaluable tool for genomics research, potentially leading to breakthroughs in personalized medicine.
The combination of CPUs and GPUs in Titan is a strategic move to enhance performance while being energy efficient. Traditional supercomputers relied heavily on CPUs, which consumed a lot of power. By integrating GPUs, which are more efficient at handling parallel tasks, Titan achieves higher performance without a proportional increase in energy consumption. This makes it a more sustainable option in the long run.
For more information and full details of the new Titan supercomputer jump over to the AMD press release.
Source: Forbes : Gizmodo
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