[Beowulf] 3.79 TFlops sp, 0.95 TFlops dp, 264 TByte/s, 3 GByte, 198 W @ 500 EUR

[Prentice Bisbal]

On 12/22/2011 09:57 AM, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 22, 2011 at 09:43:55AM -0500, Prentice Bisbal wrote:
>
>> Or if your German is rusty:
>>
>> http://www.zdnet.com/blog/computers/amd-radeon-hd-7970-graphics-card-launched-benchmarked-fastest-single-gpu-board-available/7204
> Wonder what kind of response will be forthcoming from nVidia,
> given developments like http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/14/arm_gpu_nvidia_supercomputer/
>
> It does seem that x86 is dead, despite good Bulldozer performance
> in Interlagos
>
> http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/AMDs-Serverprozessoren-mit-Bulldozer-Architektur-legen-los-1378230.html
>
> (engage dekrautizer of your choice).
>

At SC11, it was clear that everyone was looking for ways around the
power wall. I saw 5 or 6 different booths touting the use of FPGAs for
improved performance/efficiency. I don't remember there being a single
FPGA booth in the past. Whether the accelerator is GPU, FPGA, GRAPE,
Intem MIC, or something else,  I think it's clear that the future of HPC
architecture is going to change radically in the next couple years,
unless some major breakthrough occurs for commodity processors.

I think DE Shaw Research's Anton computer, which uses FPGAs and custom
processors, is an excellent example of what the future of HPC might look
like.

--
Prentice