high-performance computing
PROVIDING UPS COVER FOR ALL COMPUTE NODES CAN ADD 10 PER CENT TO THE POWER BUDGET
performance, the Green 500 is interested in performance per watt (it lists systems by the number of megaflop/s they deliver per watt) – see box. All of the top 10 systems on the current list use Nvidia K20 GPUs. Te majority of the next 20 entries are IBM BlueGene/Q systems followed by clusters using Intel’s Xeon Phi accelerators. Te top- ranked system delivers 4,503 megaflop/s per
www.scientific-computing.com l
watt and the top 48 systems all use exotic technology (IBM BlueGene/Q, Nvidia GPUs or Intel Xeon Phi). Te first commodity cluster system on the list that does not use compute accelerators is at number 49 and delivers 1,248 megaflop/s per watt. While this looks poor compared to the specialist systems at the top of the list, many HPC systems in operation today deliver less than 10 per cent of that efficiency. One conclusion that can be drawn about the power efficiency of supercomputers is that there is a very wide spectrum of power efficiency available today, and that going beyond the standard components in commodity servers can greatly improve efficiency, but at the cost of ease of programming.
@scwmagazine
Cost implications Data centres do much more than provide a cost effective, energy-efficient environment for the supercomputer. Te quality of service required will vary depending on the type of supercomputer facility being run. For example, the resilience and security requirements of an HPC service supporting real-time risk analysis in investment banking will be very different from what is offered by an academic facility. Resilience can be improved by adding redundant compute, storage, power, cooling, and networks – but all at significant cost, so this is not always appropriate. Providing UPS cover for all compute nodes can add 10 per cent to the power budget, but
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