[Beowulf] Frontier Announcement

[Jörg Saßmannshausen]

Dear all,

I think the answer to the question lies here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenACC

As I follow these things rather loosely, my understanding was that OpenACC 
should run on both nVidia and other GPUs. So maybe that is the reason why it 
is a 'pure' AMD cluster where both GPUs and CPUs are from the same supplier?
IF all of that is working out and if it is really true that you can compile 
and run OpenACC code on both types of GPUs, it would a be big win for AMD.

Time will tell!

All the best from my TARDIS!

Jörg

Am Dienstag, 7. Mai 2019, 16:59:48 BST schrieben Sie:
> >   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-ridg
> >> e/