Recent trends in the marketplace of high performance computing

Erich Strohmaier, Jack J. Dongarra, Hans W. Meuer, Horst D. Simon
2005 Parallel Computing  
In this paper we analyze major recent trends and changes in the High Performance Computing (HPC) market place. The introduction of vector computers started the area of ÔSuper-computingÕ. The initial success of vector computers in the seventies was driven by raw performance. Massive parallel systems (MPP) became successful in the early nineties due to their better price/performance ratios, which was enabled by the attack of the Ôkiller-microsÕ. The success of microprocessor based on the shared
more » ... mory concept (referred to as symmetric multiprocessors (SMP)) even for the very high-end systems, was the basis for the emerging cluster concepts in the early 2000s. Within the first half of this decade clusters of PCÕs and workstations have become the prevalent architecture for many HPC application areas on all ranges of performance. However, the Earth Simulator vector system demonstrated that many scientific applications could benefit greatly from other computer architectures. At the same time there is renewed broad interest in the scientific HPC community for new hardware architectures and new programming paradigms. The IBM BlueGene/L system is one early example of a shifting design focus for large-scale system. The DARPA HPCS program has 0167-8191/$ -see front matter Ó 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V. (J.J. Dongarra), meuer@rz.uni-mannheim.de (H.W. Meuer), simon@nersc.gov (H.D. Simon). www.elsevier.com/locate/parco Parallel Computing 31 (2005) 261-273 the declared goal of building a Petaflops computer system by the end of the decade using novel computer architectures. Ó 2005 Published by Elsevier B.V. Single Processor SMP MPP SIMD Constellations Cluster 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 J u n -9 3 J u n -9 4 J u n -9 5 J u n -9 6 J u n -9 7 J u n -9 8 J u n -9 9 J u n -0 0 J u n -0 1 J u n -0 2 J u n -0 3 J u n -0 4 Fig. 2. Main Architectural Categories seen in the TOP500. 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 500 J u n -9 3 J u n -9 4 J u n -9 5 J u n -9 6 J u n -9 7 J u n -9 8 J u n -9 9 J u n -0 0 J u n -0 1 J u n -0 2 J u n -0 3 J u n -0 4 other scalar Alpha HP MIPS Power Sparc AMD Intel SIMD Vector Fig. 3. Main Processor Families seen in the TOP500. E. Strohmaier et al. / Parallel Computing 31 (2005) 261-273 J u n -9 3 J u n -9 4 J u n -9 5 J u n -9 6 J u n -9 7 J u n -9 8 J u n -9 9 J u n -0 0 J u n -0 1 J u n -0 2 J u n -0 3 J u n -0 4 100 1000 10000 J u n -9 3 J u n -9 4 J u n -9 5 J u n -9 6 J u n -9 7 J u n -9 8 J u n -9 9 J u n -0 0 J u n -0 1 J u n -0 2 J u n -0 3 J u n -0 4 DARPA HPCS J u n -9 3 J u n -9 4 J u n -9 5 J u n -9 6 J u n -9 7 J u n -9 8 J u n -9 9 J u n -0 0 J u n -0 1 J u n -0 2 J u n -0 3 J u n -0 4 J u n -0 5 J u n -0 6 J u n -0 7 J u n -0 8 J u n -0 9 J u n -1 0
doi:10.1016/j.parco.2005.02.001 fatcat:f3ochojjpjgcfgx766hbfvehpy