The US Department of Energy is paying $500 million for the Aurora exaflop supercomputer to be built by Intel and Cray in 2021. Aurora will perform regular supercomputer research and artificial intelligence (AI) projects.
There will be extreme-scale cosmological simulations, discovering new approaches for drug response prediction and discovery of materials for the creation of more efficient organic solar cells. There will be new scientific innovation and new technological capabilities.
The supercomputer will use new Intel technologies designed specifically for the convergence of artificial intelligence and high-performance computing at extreme computing scale. These include a future generation of the Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor, Intel’s Xe compute architecture, a future generation of Intel® Optane™ DC Persistent Memory, and Intel’s One API software. Aurora will use Cray’s next-generation supercomputer system, code-named “Shasta,” which will comprise more than 200 cabinets and include Cray’s SlingshotTM high-performance scalable interconnect and the Shasta software stack optimized for Intel architecture.
Three teams in China are competing to build China’s exascale system in the next seven months and Japan’s Post-K exascale computer has a target deployment date of 2020.
China has built three exascale supercomputer prototypes.
China has launched the prototype of Shuguang, an exascale supercomputer being developed by Dawning Information Industry, also known as Sugon.
Shuguang machine is will be operated in national supercomputing centers in Shanghai and Shenzhen. The first two exascale prototypes were announced during the summer of 2018.
The first was built at the National Supercomputing Center in Tianjin. It is the prototype for the Tianhe-3 exascale machine. It is presumed to be the Arm-based supercomputer, based on Phytium’s Xiaomi platform.
https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2019/03/details-of-chinas-three-prototypes-of-exaflop-supercomputer-architectures.html”>Nextbigfuture provided details on China’s Exaflop supercomputer projects.
SOURCES- Intel, Depei Qian SC18 Youtube, Guancha, Xinhau, DOE
Written By Brian Wang. Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
Known for identifying cutting edge technologies, he is currently a Co-Founder of a startup and fundraiser for high potential early-stage companies. He is the Head of Research for Allocations for deep technology investments and an Angel Investor at Space Angels.
A frequent speaker at corporations, he has been a TEDx speaker, a Singularity University speaker and guest at numerous interviews for radio and podcasts. He is open to public speaking and advising engagements.
8 thoughts on “Exaflop Supercomputer Race”
Hilarious. 2 years certainly makes a difference. Hows the US response to the killer plague been…?
hilarious
“The challenges of trying to move ahead of a moving target are likely going to be too great for China, even assuming they find some way to mitigate many of the enormous (and often self-inflicted) internal difficulties facing them in both the near and longer term. ”
Replace China with US and you’ll be right.
Once upon a time it was the US leading the pack
Now it is China
Maybe in a century or so but, unless something really radical happens (comets hitting the Earth, killer plagues, China being discovered to be the only known source of unobtainium) the likelihood, even then, is rather low. The world’s current sole superpower is certainly not without problems of its own, but it has a lot of inertia working for it, too.
The challenges of trying to move ahead of a moving target are likely going to be too great for China, even assuming they find some way to mitigate many of the enormous (and often self-inflicted) internal difficulties facing them in both the near and longer term.
It takes a lot to lead the pack (if there even is a pack in any sense of the word), more than just getting ahead in a few areas, and even if those aren’t later proven to be temporary. A squirrel can be faster than a man but he’s not bigger or smarter, an ox can be stronger than a man but he’s not smarter, and although it’s unlikely, an octopus might be smarter than a man but, with a lifespan of two to five years, they aren’t likely to ever do enough with it to catch up, surge ahead, and lead the pack.
I rather imagine there will eventually be a world government of some sort, centuries from now, but being a part of that would mean there no longer was a pack. Concerns about such things will likely have long since become OBE.
“…and they are not as good at solving problems where nodes need to communicate…”
Are you saying China isn’t good at solving problems preventing development of more advance interconnects, or the computer is not as good at solving problems when they posses inefficient interconnects?
It isn’t hard to build a bigger supercomputer, you just throw money at it. Power consumption goes up and they are not as good at solving problems where nodes need to communicate but in terms of maximum performance you can take the crown.
The real improvements are in software and the fabric that connects the machines.
What do you call the next computer beyond Exaflop?
Zettaflop.
And what do you call the next computer beyond Zettaflop?
Yottaflop.
And what do you call the next computer beyond that?
Master.
Looks like a win-win for humanity in the long run. Competition is working here
Hilarious. 2 years certainly makes a difference. Hows the US response to the killer plague been…?
hilarious
“The challenges of trying to move ahead of a moving target are likely going to be too great for China, even assuming they find some way to mitigate many of the enormous (and often self-inflicted) internal difficulties facing them in both the near and longer term. ”
Replace China with US and you’ll be right.
Maybe in a century or so but, unless something really radical happens (comets hitting the Earth, killer plagues, China being discovered to be the only known source of unobtainium) the likelihood, even then, is rather low. The world’s current sole superpower is certainly not without problems of its own, but it has a lot of inertia working for it, too.
The challenges of trying to move ahead of a moving target are likely going to be too great for China, even assuming they find some way to mitigate many of the enormous (and often self-inflicted) internal difficulties facing them in both the near and longer term.
It takes a lot to lead the pack (if there even is a pack in any sense of the word), more than just getting ahead in a few areas, and even if those aren’t later proven to be temporary. A squirrel can be faster than a man but he’s not bigger or smarter, an ox can be stronger than a man but he’s not smarter, and although it’s unlikely, an octopus might be smarter than a man but, with a lifespan of two to five years, they aren’t likely to ever do enough with it to catch up, surge ahead, and lead the pack.
I rather imagine there will eventually be a world government of some sort, centuries from now, but being a part of that would mean there no longer was a pack. Concerns about such things will likely have long since become OBE.
“…and they are not as good at solving problems where nodes need to communicate…”
Are you saying China isn’t good at solving problems preventing development of more advance interconnects, or the computer is not as good at solving problems when they posses inefficient interconnects?
It isn’t hard to build a bigger supercomputer, you just throw money at it. Power consumption goes up and they are not as good at solving problems where nodes need to communicate but in terms of maximum performance you can take the crown.
The real improvements are in software and the fabric that connects the machines.
What do you call the next computer beyond Exaflop?
Zettaflop.
And what do you call the next computer beyond Zettaflop?
Yottaflop.
And what do you call the next computer beyond that?
Master.
Looks like a win-win for humanity in the long run. Competition is working here