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US Reveals Details of $500 Million Supercomputer (nytimes.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the racing-against-China dept.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from The New York Times: The Department of Energy disclosed details on Monday of one of the most expensive computers being built: a $500 million machine based on Intel and Cray technology that may become crucial in a high-stakes technology race between the United States and China (Warning: source may be paywalled; alternative source). The supercomputer, called Aurora, is a retooling of a development effort first announced in 2015 and is scheduled to be delivered to the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago in 2021. Lab officials predict it will be the first American machine to reach a milestone called "exascale" performance, surpassing a quintillion calculations per second. That's roughly seven times the speed rating of the most powerful system built to date, or 1,000 times faster than the first "petascale" systems that began arriving in 2008. Backers hope the new machines will let researchers create significantly more accurate simulations of phenomena such as drug responses, climate changes, the inner workings of combustion engines and solar panels.

Aurora, which far exceeds the $200 million price for Summit, represents a record government contract for Intel and a test of its continued leadership in supercomputers. The Silicon Valley giant's popular processors -- the calculating engine for nearly all personal computers and server systems -- power most such machines. But additional accelerator chips are considered essential to reach the very highest speeds, and its rival Nvidia has built a sizable business adapting chips first used with video games for use in supercomputers. The version of Aurora announced in 2015 was based on an Intel accelerator chip that the company later discontinued. A revised plan to seek more ambitious performance targets was announced two years later. Features discussed on Monday include unreleased Intel accelerator chips, a version of its standard Xeon processor, new memory and communications technology and a design that packages chips on top of each other to save space and power.

60 comments

  1. In before... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's obsolete. 5... 4... 3...

    1. Re:In before... by sycodon · · Score: 3, Funny

      But not before it reports the answer:

      42

      --
      When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    2. Re:In before... by reboot246 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Right before it was going to report the answer, Windows 10 decided it was time for an update. Once installed, the update broke all audio output. Now we'll never know!

    3. Re:In before... by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      That's pretty funny and all seeing as that was a great book. But nobody has said anything about the security of such a computer using Intel parts. Also Intel is about to take a back seat in IPC for at least a few months until they can get their 10nm process working(3 years later or so). Then I also thought price. If this Intel build costs $500M, and uses core technology(not secure)... I'm sure they could build a far more secure system from AMD for about 2/3 the money for the same, if not more performance with ZEN 2. Just my thoughts, something seems odd about all of this.

    4. Re:In before... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But not before it reports the answer:

      42

      I was thinking that was also the result of sony's old ecdsa random number generator, but sadly their getRandomNumber() function wasn't quite secure. They forgot to add the "2"

    5. Re: In before... by Cmdln+Daco · · Score: 1

      Security? You think it will be connected to the open Internet?

    6. Re: In before... by Highdude702 · · Score: 1

      Well, considering all of the other shit that is connected to the open internet that shouldn't be. Do you trust the govt morons that much?

    7. Re: In before... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But atleast they got to play crysis on Max settings... No sound though

    8. Re: In before... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Security? Do you really think Meltdown and Spectre are a concern for a supercomputer?

  2. Sooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Always wondered: which dumpster does all of this go in when they upgrade, and how cheaply can I steal it for?

    1. Re:Sooo by bobbied · · Score: 1

      Always wondered: which dumpster does all of this go in when they upgrade, and how cheaply can I steal it for?

      You cannot afford to run a Cray C-90 even if you found one in a scrap heap. Just buying the coolant would break you and don't get me started on that electric bill.

      I know, I know, the C-90's are 20+ years old now..

      I just expect that a "Super Computer" of today, will be as useless as a Cray C-90 was when they hit the scrap heap.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    2. Re:Sooo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I only want pieces to repurpose into smaller computing units. No need for the whole thing.

  3. in Soviet Russia ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Supercomputer reveals details of YOU!

    1. Re:in Soviet Russia ... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      ... this imagines Beowulf cluster of you!

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  4. Don't tell Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Backers hope the new machines will let researchers create significantly more accurate simulations of phenomena such as drug responses, climate changes, the inner workings of combustion engines and solar panels.

    Climate change? Solar panels? This project is as good as cancelled.

    1. Re:Don't tell Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Putin has given me his word, Russian Fusion -tm is the only project worth investing US dollars in... and I take him at his word...

    2. Re:Don't tell Trump! by bobbied · · Score: 2

      Backers hope the new machines will let researchers create significantly more accurate simulations of phenomena such as drug responses, climate changes, the inner workings of combustion engines and solar panels.

      Climate change? Solar panels? This project is as good as cancelled.

      I don't know.. Super Computers are key in current state of the art nuclear testing, when you cannot just dig a hole and set your latest weapons off underground due to the nuclear test ban treaty. I got a feeling Trump will let this climate change study slide to get better weapons. I call it a win win myself.

      --
      "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    3. Re: Don't tell Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Computer, what would happen if I nuke Gyna?

    4. Re: Don't tell Trump! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Glabal warming of the global global warming, then warming. Global warming. Don't like talk against the global warming religion you!!! Global global

  5. Smells like desperation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The Chinese are getting awful good at taking top spots on the top500 list... but will just throwing a lot of money at the problem make the Chinese bite dust again? If not, then what will you do?

    1. Re:Smells like desperation by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Are you stupid? Both sides are constantly leapfrogging eachother, it's a momentary bragging right. Did you just wake up or something? This has gone on for 20 years or longer, back and forth over and over again.

    2. Re: Smells like desperation by Type44Q · · Score: 1

      You tell 'em.

  6. Space race is soo last century by penandpaper · · Score: 3, Funny

    The new fad is a super computing race! Who needs to go to space when you can simulate it in your back yard.

    1. Re:Space race is soo last century by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm already modelling their super-computer superpower race on my planet-sized quantum computation device, silly hu-mons.

    2. Re:Space race is soo last century by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It was on for US since Japanese captured Top500 with their Earth Simulator. China's machines gave another boost to the efforts as the rest of the politicians woke up from their dreams of superior powers. Exascale efforts form a convenient background for the race as it has to be done anyway to get to the next level in science and applications. No personalized medicine for anybody without 10-100 times exascale machines, at least.

    3. Re:Space race is soo last century by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmm, do we need real AI for it to eventually rule us?

      1. Crazy government creates vast AI that is far reaching, and spreads like a worm to systems worldwide.
      2. System is designed to optimize the level of chaos in other governments, but somewhere along the way it lost what the definition of other meant.
      3. It does this through vast manipulation of all digital information, while also covering its own tracks and appearing to be statistical noise.

      Come to think of it, the aforementioned scenario may have already happened...

  7. Turing complete by Dan+East · · Score: 1

    So since all "computers" are Turing complete, they can all produce the same results - it's just a matter of processing time and having enough memory to hold the needed data. So this computer can't actually accomplish anything more than before. It can just fulfill a greater workload. Or am I mistaken?

    --
    Better known as 318230.
    1. Re:Turing complete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The ability to work with a larger dataset in "realtime" means better data trend resolution when you're simulating something and more confidence in the result. Scaling-down / iterating is possible but can introduce artifacts.

      So you're 1/2 right. Data superset > data subset.

    2. Re:Turing complete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're so right. Why waste building supercomputers when you can do the exact same calculations with your Apple II and a trillion years of patience.

    3. Re: Turing complete by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Right, "drug responses, climate changes, the inner workings of combustion engines and solar panels" have little to do with China. But it's nice to crack encryption faster.

    4. Re:Turing complete by CSMoran · · Score: 1

      So since all "computers" are Turing complete, they can all produce the same results - it's just a matter of processing time and having enough memory to hold the needed data. So this computer can't actually accomplish anything more than before. It can just fulfill a greater workload. Or am I mistaken?

      That depends. If you take into account the projected age of the universe, you might find that doing the same calculations using giant fields of wooden rods, while equivalent, may not be practical.

      So "this computer can't actually accomplish anything more than before" is as true as saying a huge truck is not an accomplishment in transport, because you could equally well divide your cargo into tiny pieces that can be carried atop snails and then reassembled when they reach the destination.

      --
      Every end has half a stick.
  8. dep.of energy testing drug responses? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    You could name a whole list of usage of such a computer but there is only one one with the real budgets, because it currently is only allowed to be tested in simulations, and that use is what the department of energy is all about.

  9. Aurora by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

    >> Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago

    You know what else is next to Chicago? Aurora, Illinois. (Wayne's World's home - and 37 miles from Argonne.)

  10. HBM by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Does anyone think intel will put a few gigs of HBM on their server processors for multiple TB/s?
    If they do, my JavaFirstPostBot might actually have an edge.

  11. Dobby was a transexual elf who enjoyed rough sex by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    - J K R

  12. Why does tech/sci fi love "Aurora"? by eepok · · Score: 1

    I am tempted to go through all the techie and sci-fi uses of the term "Aurora" and make a single record of them all. From spaceship names to project codenames, it seems to be everywhere.

    And the female name Kira, Qi'ra, etc.

    1. Re:Why does tech/sci fi love "Aurora"? by myth24601 · · Score: 1

      I bet this new super computer could go through all that data for you pretty darn fast.

      --
      No matter where you go, there you are.
    2. Re:Why does tech/sci fi love "Aurora"? by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      I am tempted to go through all the techie and sci-fi uses of the term "Aurora" and make a single record of them all. From spaceship names to project codenames, it seems to be everywhere.

      And the female name Kira, Qi'ra, etc.

      Aurora is the goddess of Dawn. So, in any techie or sci fi context, it suggests fresh beginnings, a wonderful start to a new era.

      Basically, 'Sunrise' from Also Sprach Zarathustra.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
  13. Re: Dobby was a transexual elf who enjoyed rough s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With who? Harry.

  14. Re: Dobby was a transexual elf who enjoyed rough s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fluffy

  15. And the Operating System Will Be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Linux perhaps?

    1. Re:And the Operating System Will Be by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nah, Linux is too busy dominating desktops these days...
      Even if it's only a remote one from the cloud. The cloud skids can't do CLI that well...

  16. It's Intel. It's *already* obsolete. :) by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Intel has re-packaged the same old tech for many years now. The secret to why Intel was chosen over Epyc, POWER, etc, can probably be found behind those barrels of pork over there...

  17. Total waste of taxpayer money by JcMorin · · Score: 1

    The department of energy has so many computer I would be shocked to know if any of those are working 24/7. I can't believe they really need yet another super computer to perform stupid task. This is not about science, it's about give money to friend and pride to hold the fastest computer.

    1. Re:Total waste of taxpayer money by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 4, Informative

      Larger computers allow models to be run faster so you can repeat more runs to see what the probable impacts the model predicts. They also allow finer scale detail in the model and the modellers to add new variables to the model. The amount of exponentially goes up massively if you are mapping the climate and you decrease the size of your grid element (a block where weather conditions are the same). New data is coming in from the field all of the time and our understanding how systems work is always improving. With better computers more variables may be added to a model to make it more accurate. Those variables may have used up too much computer time on the older systems.

      I'm not ruling out that there's some national pride at work and the awarding of the contract to a specific company might not have helped out someone.

    2. Re:Total waste of taxpayer money by joe_frisch · · Score: 1

      I expect most of the big farms are used most of the time. The farms I know of do. A lot of these systems are used for simulations that take days or longer to run, so the jobs are just loaded up.

      At some point older computers become uneconomical to run because of the power budget.

    3. Re:Total waste of taxpayer money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://www.olcf.ornl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/CY2016_OLCF_OAR.pdf

      page 43 shows utilization of Titan. I can assure it has not dropped since then. Numbers for other systems are similar - HPC compute time is in high demand in many diverse science areas.

      > I can't believe they really need yet another super computer to perform stupid task.

      if you can't believe that, maybe take a minute to learn about it before pulling conspiracies out of your head? ;-) There are enough things to worry about that are real, no need to invent new ones...

    4. Re:Total waste of taxpayer money by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for your input, comrade.

  18. Use it to advance fusion research by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fusion has the potential to jumpstart the next industrial revolution and eliminate climate change.

  19. What's Next? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I remember the peta-scale race (and the long, long series of developments that preceded). After exa-scale, what is next? Humungo-scale? Giganta-scale? Whale-scale? I-Can't-Believe-It's-Not-Butter-Scale?

    1. Re:What's Next? by CSMoran · · Score: 1

      Before we get to zettascale computing we need to improve resilience. When you are running MPI jobs with 50000 CPU cores you need to really start tolerating single-node failures gracefully. Aborting the job is no longer a desirable option and checkpointing can be exceedingly costly for many workloads.

      --
      Every end has half a stick.
  20. 1+ exaflops normally by CanadianMacFan · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It runs at an expected 1 exaflops but with the Spectre prevention it'll be running at just under 900 petaflops.

    1. Re:1+ exaflops normally by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To ruin the joke, it is possible that the Spectre prevention was one of the reasons the pre-exascale Intel system never emerged, that is the system that was meant to stand beside the Summit and other IBM/NVidia machines. The effect of the early mitigations on MPI and SSD burst buffer performance could have been horrible.

  21. Aurora power requirements by judoguy · · Score: 1
    I'd like to see the power requirements.

    A friend of mine worked on the Oak Ridge Summit super computer that brought online last year. The power requirements for running the thing are astonishing in and of themselves. More or less a small city's worth of electricity.

    --
    Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
    1. Re:Aurora power requirements by necro81 · · Score: 1

      I'd like to see the power requirements.

      Indeed: the power requirements for supercomputers have been getting crazy, and the forecasts for exascale computing are worse. Interestingly, the power required for the computation isn't all that bad; what really kills you is the power burned in moving data around, and the power required to keep everything cool. The DoE's exascale computing research has a goal of a machine in the early 2020s that only requires 20-30 MW.

      It is a few years old, but IEEE Spectrum provided a good overview of the challenges of exascale computing. Power is a big one, as described in this Spectrum article. Other problems include cosmic rays, dirty power, and bad solder, as described here.

    2. Re:Aurora power requirements by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think they upped the power limit goals to something like 40-60MW recently. If the avoidance of data movement requires new programming models, there is the challenge of adapting or rewriting potentially millions lines of code. Fortunately the people involved apparently are going to create a library and code infrastructure to support the application development and adaptation for the critical parts.

  22. Post K (Fujitsu) Versus Aurora (Cray) by reporter · · Score: 1

    According to a report by The Register, Fujitsu will use ARM to build an exascale supercomputer, which is called Post K.

    According to a report by InsideHPC, the supercomputer will debut in 2021, which is the same year in which Aurora will debut.

    According to another report by InsideHPC, the ARM supercomputer will be tuned for high performance in machine-learning applications.

    Fearing an economic Pearl Harbor, Washington quickly asked Cray to develop an answer to Post K. Aurora is the answer.

  23. Imagine a beowulf cluster of these! by carnivore302 · · Score: 1

    Sorry, couldn't resist.

    --
    Please login to access my lawn