[Beowulf] Frontier Announcement

[Prentice Bisbal]

>   I think it is interesting that they are using AMD for
> both the CPUs and GPUs

I agree. That means a LOT of codes will have to be ported from CUDA to 
whatever AMD uses. I know AMD announced their HIP interface to convert 
CUDA code into something that will run on AMD processors, but I don't 
know how well that works in theory. Frankly, I haven't heard anything 
about it since it was announced at SC a few years ago.

I would not be surprised if AMD pursued this bid quite agressively, 
possibly at a significant loss, for the opportunity to prove their GPUs 
can compete with NVIDIA and demonstrate that codes can be successfully 
converted from CUDA to something AMD GPUs can use to demonstrate GPU 
users don't need to be locked in to a single vendor. If so, this could 
be a costly gamble for the DOE and AMD, but if it pays off, I imagine it 
could change AMD's fortunes in HPC.

  "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" doesn't apply just to cars.

Prentice

On 5/7/19 4:43 PM, Jörg Saßmannshausen wrote:
> Hi Prentice,
>
> that looks interesting and I hope it means I will finally get the neutron
> structure which was measured last year there! :-)
>
> On a more serious note: I think it is interesting that they are using AMD for
> both the CPUs and GPUs. It sounds at least very fast of what they want to
> build, lets hope their design will work as planned as well.
>
> All the best from London
>
> Jörg
>
> Am Dienstag, 7. Mai 2019, 10:32:42 BST schrieb Prentice Bisbal via Beowulf:
>> ORNL's Frontier System has been announced:
>>
>> https://www.hpcwire.com/2019/05/07/cray-amd-exascale-frontier-at-oak-ridge/