Cray XE6
Encyclopedia
The Cray
XE6 (codenamed Baker during development) is an enhanced version of the Cray XT6
supercomputer
, officially announced on 25 May 2010. The XE6 uses the same compute blade found in the XT6, with eight- or 12-core Opteron 6100 processors giving up to 2,304 cores per cabinet, but replaces the SeaStar2+ interconnect router used in the Cray XT5
and XT6 with the faster and more scalable Gemini router ASIC
. This is used to provide a 3-dimensional torus network topology between nodes. Each XE6 node has two processor sockets and either 32 or 64 GB of DDR3 SDRAM
memory. Two nodes share one Gemini router ASIC.
The XE6 runs the Cray Linux Environment version 3. This incorporates SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
and Cray's Compute Node Linux
.
Cray
Cray Inc. is an American supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray. Seymour Cray went on to form the spin-off Cray Computer Corporation , in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1995,...
XE6 (codenamed Baker during development) is an enhanced version of the Cray XT6
Cray XT6
The Cray XT6 is an updated version of the Cray XT5 supercomputer, launched on 16 November 2009. The dual- or quad-core AMD Opteron 2000-series processors of the XT5 are replaced in the XT6 with eight- or 12-core Opteron 6100 processors, giving up to 2,304 cores per cabinet...
supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
, officially announced on 25 May 2010. The XE6 uses the same compute blade found in the XT6, with eight- or 12-core Opteron 6100 processors giving up to 2,304 cores per cabinet, but replaces the SeaStar2+ interconnect router used in the Cray XT5
Cray XT5
The Cray XT5 is an updated version of the Cray XT4 supercomputer, launched on November 6, 2007. It includes a faster version of the XT4's SeaStar2 interconnect router called SeaStar2+, and can be configured either with XT4 compute blades, which have four dual-core AMD Opteron processor sockets, or...
and XT6 with the faster and more scalable Gemini router ASIC
ASIC
ASIC may refer to:* Application-specific integrated circuit, an integrated circuit developed for a particular use, as opposed to a customised general-purpose device.* ASIC programming language, a dialect of BASIC...
. This is used to provide a 3-dimensional torus network topology between nodes. Each XE6 node has two processor sockets and either 32 or 64 GB of DDR3 SDRAM
DDR3 SDRAM
In computing, DDR3 SDRAM, an abbreviation for double data rate type three synchronous dynamic random access memory, is a modern kind of dynamic random access memory with a high bandwidth interface. It is one of several variants of DRAM and associated interface techniques used since the early 1970s...
memory. Two nodes share one Gemini router ASIC.
The XE6 runs the Cray Linux Environment version 3. This incorporates SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is a Linux distribution supplied by SUSE and targeted at the business market. It is targeted for servers, mainframes, and workstations but can be installed on desktop computers for testing as well. New major versions are released at an interval of 3-4 years, while...
and Cray's Compute Node Linux
Compute Node Linux
Compute Node Linux is a runtime environment based on the Linux kernel for the Cray XT3, Cray XT4, Cray XT5, Cray XT6, and Cray XE6 supercomputer systems based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server. CNL forms part of the UNICOS/lc operating system from release 2.0 onwards...
.