[Beowulf] DARPA issues 20 MUSD grant to nVidia to go from 1 GFLOPS/Watt to 75 GFLOPS/Watt

[Jonathan Aquilina]

On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 8:15 PM, Lux, Jim (337C)
<james.p.lux at jpl.nasa.gov>wrote:

> I wasn't thinking so much about code efficiency, more "wall plug power"
> efficiency.  The board may consume 250W, but it will take non-zero power to
> support that board, and then the power supply efficiency needs to be taken
> into account.  But I suspect the 1 GFLOP/W was more just an "old" "rounded
> off" number.
>
> Yes... it's very hard work to get to a real 75 GFLOP/Watt, but that is
> what DARPA is all about... High Risk, High Reward.  Somehow, though, I
> can't see building a new fab with smaller feature sizes for the paltry sum
> of 20M.  More like they'll do some architecture studies, a pile o'modeling
> (if we DID invest $1B in a new fab, here's what you might be able to do),
> and do a bunch of work on things like failure tolerant architectures (if
> you have a sea of processors, and X% are dead at any given time, how do you
> write software to run on that sea)
>
> I wonder what Nvidia chips are used in Audis and BMWs?  The video display,
> perhaps: there's a nifty 3D rendered view of the GPS mapping info in the
> new BMWs?  I don't see a real need for that kind of horsepower in an Engine
> Control Unit.  Maybe in a smart cruise control that does station keeping,
> or in a collision avoidance system.  Actually, I don't really see Nvidia
> being in the "safety critical" space at all.
>
> I really wouldnt be suprised if its the tegra's that would be in those
vehicles. Only thing i coudl think of it would be used in in car GPS or the
fancy radio setup with all those features they have, who knows.

>
>
>
> Jim Lux
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org] On
> Behalf Of Vincent Diepeveen
> Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 10:02 AM
> To: Lux, Jim (337C)
> Cc: Beowulf at beowulf.org
> Subject: Re: [Beowulf] DARPA issues 20 MUSD grant to nVidia to go from 1
> GFLOPS/Watt to 75 GFLOPS/Watt
>
> On Dec 17, 2012, at 6:27 PM, Lux, Jim (337C) wrote:
>
> > That could be a notional 1 GFLOP/Watt in a fielded system.
>
> Even linpack is 70% - 80% efficient on this so should get out oh let's use
> a conservative 4.5 flops/watt effectively at codes.
>
>
>
>
>
> Note that (to my big surprise) it seems to be the case that the gpu's are
> effectively getting higher efficiency than Xeon Phi here.
>
> > The original documents for PERFECT are probably a year or two old by
> > now.. but what DARPA is looking for is a nearly 2 order of magnitude
> > improvement...  Whether they started at 1 or 1.4 or 6 really doesn't
> > make much difference to what they're looking for.
> >
>
> Yeah well that 2 orders of a magnitude is just 1 order of a magnitude if
> we start at 6.
>
> 6 ==> 75 = factor 12
>
> They speak about 7 nm technology in the accompanying document. That's a
> very conservative estimate, obviously in theory even with todays 2
> dimensional way of building (not to mention when things really get 3d), we
> speak of a difference in theory of:
>
> (28 / 7) ^ 2 = 4^2 = 16
>
> Given enough time, engineers will get that factor 16 easily out of
> transition over the years from 28/32 nm to 7 nm.
> Note that 7nm is still far beyond the horizon.
>
> However if they would have needed to improve current design factor 75
> moving from 28/32 nm they use today to 7 nm, that would be a complicated
> bet.
>
> > In any case, it's a long way from a manufacturer's cut sheet to a
> > system installed in a tank bouncing through the woods..
> >
> >
> > Jim Lux
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: beowulf-bounces at beowulf.org [mailto:beowulf-
> > bounces at beowulf.org] On Behalf Of Vincent Diepeveen
> > Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 5:50 AM
> > To: Eugen Leitl
> > Cc: Beowulf at beowulf.org; info at postbiota.org
> > Subject: Re: [Beowulf] DARPA issues 20 MUSD grant to nVidia to go from
> > 1 GFLOPS/Watt to 75 GFLOPS/Watt
> >
> > "todays 1 gflop/watt" ?
> >
> > The K20X delivers 1.4 Tflop nearly.
> > If i google it's 235 watt TDP.
> >
> > 1.4 Tflop / 235 =  6 gflops/watt
> >
> > On Dec 17, 2012, at 2:21 PM, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> http://www.networkworld.com/community/blog/darpa-awards-20m-nvidia-
> >> stretch-achilles-heel-advanced-computing-power
> >>
> >>
> >
>
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-- 
Jonathan Aquilina
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