"Updates
for Intel® Xeon® processors, Intel® HPC Orchestrator, Intel® Deep Learning
Inference Accelerator and other forthcoming supercomputing technologies
available soon"
SC16
revealed several important pieces of news for supercomputing experts. In case
you missed it, here’s a recap of announced updates from Intel that will provide
even more powerful capabilities to address HPC challenges like energy
efficiency, system complexity, and the ability for simplified workload
customization. In supercomputing, one size certainly does not fit all. Intel’s
new and updated technologies take a step forward in addressing these issues,
allowing users to focus more on their applications for HPC, not the technology
behind it.
intellogoIn
2017, developers will welcome a next generation of Intel® Xeon® and Intel® Xeon
Phi™ processors. As you would expect, these updates offer increased processor
speed and more through improved technologies under the hood. The next
generation Intel Xeon Phi processor (code name “Knights Mill”) will exceed its
predecessor’s capability with up to four times better performance in deep
learning scenarios1.
Of
course, as developers know, the currently-shipping Intel Xeon Phi processor
(formerly known as “Knights Landing”) is no slouch! Nine systems utilizing this
processor now reside on the TOP500 list. Of special note are the Cori (NERSC)
and Oakforest-PACS (Japan Joint Center for Advanced High Performance Computing)
supercomputing systems with both claiming a spot among the Top 10.
The
next-generation Intel Xeon processor (code name “Skylake”) is also expected to
join the portfolio in 2017. Demanding applications involving floating point
calculations and encryption will benefit from both Intel® Advanced Vector
Instructions-512, and Intel® Omni-Path Architecture (Intel® OPA). These
improvements will further streamline the processor’s capability, giving
commercial, academic and research institutions another step forward against
taxing workloads.
A
third processing technology anticipated in 2017 enables an additional level of
HPC customization. The combined hardware and software solution, known as Intel®
Deep Learning Inference Accelerator, sports a field-programmable gate array
(FPGA) at its heart. By maximizing industry standard frameworks like Intel®
Distribution for Caffe* and Intel® Math Kernel Library for Deep Neural Networks
too, the solution provides end users opportunity for even greater flexibility
in their supercomputing applications.
intelcircleAt
SC16, Intel also highlighted supplemental momentum for Intel® Scalable System
Framework (Intel SSF). HPC is an essential tool for advances in health-related
applications, and Intel SSF is taking a place center-stage as a
mission-critical tool in those scenarios as Intel demonstrated in its SC16
booth. Dell* offers Intel SSF for supercomputing scenarios involving drug
design and cancer research. Other applications like genomic sequencing create a
challenge for any supercomputer. For this reason, Hewlett Packard Enterprise*
(HPE) taps Intel SSF as a core component of the HPE Next Generation Sequencing
Solution.
Additional
performance isn’t the only thing supercomputing experts need, though. Feedback
from HPC developers, administrators and end-users express the need for improved
tools during critical phases of system setup and usage. Help is on the way. Now
available, Intel® HPC Orchestrator based upon the OpenHPC software stack
addresses that feedback. With over 60 features integrated, it assists with testing
at full-scale, deployment scenarios, and simplified systems management.
Currently available through Dell* and Fujitsu*, Intel HPC Orchestrator should
provide added momentum for the democratization of HPC.
Demonstrating
further momentum, Intel Omni-Path Architecture has seen quite an uptick in
adoption since release nine months back. It is utilized in about 66 percent of
TOP500 HPC systems utilizing 100Gbit interconnects.
With
so many technical advancements on the horizon, 2017 is shaping up as a year for
major changes in the HPC industry. We are excited see how researchers,
developers and others will utilize the technologies to take their
supercomputing systems to the next level of performance, and tackle problems
which were impossible just a few years ago.
1
For more complete information about performance and benchmark results, visit
www.intel.com/benchmarks
