An open invitation to work on the world’s fastest computer
In conversation with Tom
Wilkie, the deputy designer of Tianhe-2 spoke warmly of the benefits of peaceful and open international cooperation in using supercomputers for science
E
urope’s research scientists and system-level computer soſtware engineers are welcome to use the world’s fastest supercomputer,
the Tianhe-2, to pursue their research in collaboration with Chinese scientists and HPC specialists. In an exclusive interview with Scientific
Computing World, Professor Yutong Lu, the deputy chief designer of the Tianhe-2, said: ‘Europe has lots of application soſtware experts and we would like to co-operate’. International collaboration was something China wanted to encourage because the machine was being used for open research work, she continued: ‘Computer science is a very general subject. I don’t think we should have secret work’. She rejected out-of-hand US allegations
that the computer was used for military applications, saying: ‘Our focus is basic science and technology research. Our university is very open’. As an example of international collaboration that could be encouraged, Professor Lu cited the Memorandum of Understanding signed between Britain and China on 27 May 2014, which allows one of the largest UK HPC research establishments, the Hartree Centre, access to the Tianhe-2. ‘Our university developed the system
to support applications’, she said, so the university and Tianhe-2 welcomed collaboration from end-user application scientists but they were also interested in working with system-level computer scientists. Such cooperation can yield good results for all scientists, she continued, but
16 SCIENTIFIC COMPUTING WORLD
Professor Yutong Lu, deputy chief designer on the Tianhe Project, collects the certificate testifying that Tianhe-2 had scored first place in an alternative metric for measuring the speed of supercomputers: the High Performance Conjugate Gradients (HPCG) Benchmark
in an oblique reference to the shadow of US Government policy towards Tianhe-2, she said that the first requirement ‘is to fully understand and trust each other.’ Professor Lu reiterated that ‘we are an open
centre’, but conceded that the university’s name, the National University of Defence Technology, could be a sensitive subject.
Warm words for Intel, despite US embargo As reported on the Scientific Computing World website, Intel has been banned by the US Government from selling any more Xeon processors or Phi co-processors for use in the Tianhe-2 machine at the Guangzhou Supercomputer Centre in China, and from doing business with three other establishments in China. An official US Government statement alleges that ‘Te Tianhe–1A and Tianhe–2 supercomputers are believed to be used in nuclear explosive activities.’ Tese allegations were rejected by Professor Lu. Te impact of the embargo has gone much
further than the widely reported ban on Intel supplying its hardware. It also involves
cessation of support and cooperation at the intellectual level of computer science and technology development. Professor Lu said that she was ‘frustrated’
by the US embargo. Although it became public knowledge only earlier this year, the Chinese authorities found out about it when Intel stopped providing support services towards the end of September and beginning of October last year. Te Tianhe-2 had been having issues
with the Phi co-processors supplied by Intel, she said. ‘We had many problems with the stability of Phi, because we used the first generation of the Phi processors,’ she said. However, despite the embargo, she spoke warmly of the fruitful working relationship they had established with Intel: ‘We had close cooperation to upgrade and deal with these issues’. Ten, she continued: ‘Intel said “We have to stop now”.’ Enough Ivy Bridge Xeon E5 2692
processors had already been delivered to allow the Tianhe-2 to be upgraded from its current 55 Petaflops peak performance to the 100 Petaflops mark. (Despite the near doubling in speed, the new version will
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