The Mont-Blanc Project: First Phase Successfully Finished

Running from October 2011 to June 2015, the aim of the European project Mont-Blanc has been to develop an approach to Exascale computing based on embedded power-efficient technology. The main goals of the project were to i) build an HPC prototype using currently available energy-efficient embedded technology, ii) design a Next Generation system to overcome the limitations of the built prototype and iii) port a set of representative Exascale applications to the system. This article summarises the contributions from the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre (LRZ) and the Juelich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), Germany, to the Mont-Blanc project.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure

The Mont-Blanc prototype: an alternative approach for high-performance computing systems

High-performance computing (HPC) is recognized as one of the pillars for further advance of science, industry, medicine, and education. Current HPC systems are being developed to overcome emerging challenges in order to reach Exascale level of performance,which is expected by the year 2020. The much larger embedded and mobile market allows for rapid development of IP blocks, and provides more flexibility in designing an application-specific SoC, in turn giving possibility in balancing performance, energy-efficiency and cost. In the Mont-Blanc project, we advocate for HPC systems be built from such commodity IP blocks, currently used in embedded and mobile SoCs. As a first demonstrator of such approach, we present the Mont-Blanc prototype; the first HPC system built with commodity SoCs, memories, and NICs from the embedded and mobile domain, and off-the-shelf HPC networking, storage, cooling and integration solutions. We present the system’s architecture, and evaluation including both performance and energy efficiency. Further, we compare the system’s abilities against a production level supercomputer. At the end, we discuss parallel scalability, and estimate the maximum scalability point of this approach across a set of HPC applications.Postprint (published version

Best Practice Guide - Modern Interconnects

Having a high-bandwidth and low-latency interconnect usually makes the main difference between computerswhich are connected via a regular low-bandwidth, high-latency network and a so-called supercomputer or HPCsystem. Different interconnection types are available, either from individual vendors for their specific HPC setup or inthe form of a separate product, to be used in a variety of different systems. For the user of such a system, theinterconnect is often seen as a black box. This guide will give an overview of the most common types of interconnects in the current generation of HPCsystems. It will introduce the key features of each interconnect type and the most common network topologies.The selected interconnect type within the current generation of PRACE Tier-0 systems will be listed and the finalsection will give some hints concerning network benchmarking

The Mont-Blanc prototype: An Alternative Approach for HPC Systems

International audienceHigh-performance computing (HPC) is recognizedas one of the pillars for further progress in science, industry,medicine, and education. Current HPC systems are being developed to overcome emerging architectural challenges in orderto reach Exascale level of performance, projected for the year2020. The much larger embedded and mobile market allowsfor rapid development of intellectual property (IP) blocksand provides more flexibility in designing an application-specific system-on-chip (SoC), in turn providing the possibilityin balancing performance, energy-efficiency, and cost. In theMont-Blanc project, we advocate for HPC systems being builtfrom such commodity IP blocks, currently used in embeddedand mobile SoCs.As a first demonstrator of such an approach, we presentthe Mont-Blanc prototype; the first HPC system built withcommodity SoCs, memories, and network interface cards(NICs) from the embedded and mobile domain, and off-the-shelf HPC networking, storage, cooling, and integrationsolutions. We present the system’s architecture and evaluateboth performance and energy efficiency. Further, we comparethe system’s abilities against a production level supercomputer.At the end, we discuss parallel scalability and estimate themaximum scalability point of this approach across a set ofapplications

The Mont-Blanc Prototype: An Alternative Approach for HPC Systems

High-performance computing (HPC) is recognized as one of the pillars for further progress in science, industry, medicine, and education. Current HPC systems are being developed to overcome emerging architectural challenges in order to reach Exascale level of performance, projected for the year 2020. The much larger embedded and mobile market allows for rapid development of intellectual property (IP) blocks and provides more flexibility in designing an application-specific system-on-chip (SoC), in turn providing the possibility in balancing performance, energy-efficiency, and cost. In the Mont-Blanc project, we advocate for HPC systems being built from such commodity IP blocks, currently used in embedded and mobile SoCs.As a first demonstrator of such an approach, we present the Mont-Blanc prototype; the first HPC system built with commodity SoCs, memories, and network interface cards (NICs) from the embedded and mobile domain, and off-the-shelf HPC networking, storage, cooling, and integration solutions. We present the system's architecture and evaluate both performance and energy efficiency. Further, we compare the system's abilities against a production level supercomputer. At the end, we discuss parallel scalability and estimate the maximum scalability point of this approach across a set of applications

The Mont-Blanc prototype: an alternative approach for high-performance computing systems

High-performance computing (HPC) is recognized as one of the pillars for further advance of science, industry, medicine, and education. Current HPC systems are being developed to overcome emerging challenges in order to reach Exascale level of performance,which is expected by the year 2020. The much larger embedded and mobile market allows for rapid development of IP blocks, and provides more flexibility in designing an application-specific SoC, in turn giving possibility in balancing performance, energy-efficiency and cost. In the Mont-Blanc project, we advocate for HPC systems be built from such commodity IP blocks, currently used in embedded and mobile SoCs. As a first demonstrator of such approach, we present the Mont-Blanc prototype; the first HPC system built with commodity SoCs, memories, and NICs from the embedded and mobile domain, and off-the-shelf HPC networking, storage, cooling and integration solutions. We present the system’s architecture, and evaluation including both performance and energy efficiency. Further, we compare the system’s abilities against a production level supercomputer. At the end, we discuss parallel scalability, and estimate the maximum scalability point of this approach across a set of HPC applications