U.S. to Build Two Flagship Supercomputers for National Labs - Seite 2

Summit and Sierra will be the next major step on the path to reaching exascale computing levels by virtue of a number of breakthrough technologies.

One is the NVIDIA NVLink high-speed GPU interconnect, which will be integrated into NVIDIA GPUs and IBM POWER CPUs powering the new systems. NVLink allows GPUs and CPUs to share data five to 12 times faster than today, and is designed to ultimately enable supercomputers that are 50 to 100 times faster than today's fastest systems.

The systems will also feature NVIDIA's future generation GPU architecture, Volta™, which will deliver considerably higher performance than the company's current Maxwell™ architecture and subsequent Pascal™ design. Delivering significantly higher levels of computational performance than anything available today, NVIDIA GPUs will provide Summit and Sierra with more than 90 percent of the peak floating point processing capability.

"Our users have the most complex scientific problems and need exceptionally powerful computers to meet national goals," said Buddy Bland, project director of the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. "The projected performance of Summit would not have been possible without the combination of these technologies, which will give our users an exceptionally powerful tool to accomplish these goals."

Summit to Accelerate Open Science Computing
Summit, like Titan, will be dedicated to open science, meaning that researchers worldwide will have the opportunity to apply for time on the system. It will also raise the bar for energy-efficient computing, providing five to 10 times higher performance than Titan, while using only 10 percent more power.

Sierra to Bolster National Security
Sierra will deliver five to 10 times higher compute performance than Lawrence Livermore's current fastest system, "Sequoia," which delivers 20 petaflops. It will be used for the National Nuclear Security Administration's program to ensure the safety, security and effectiveness of the nation's nuclear deterrent without testing, and nonproliferation efforts to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction worldwide.

Exascale Computing's Potential and Challenge
Exascale supercomputers are anticipated to further discovery into broad areas of science, engineering and industry, such as enabling work on cures for disease, providing insights into the human brain, helping to mitigate the effects of climate change, and increasing our understanding of the origins of the universe.