NEC SX-9
Encyclopedia
The SX-9 is a supercomputer
built by NEC Corporation. The SX-9 Series implements an SMP
system in a compact node module and uses an enhanced version of the single chip vector processor that was introduced with the SX-6
. The NEC SX-9 processors run at 3.2 GHz, with eight-way replicated vector pipes, each having two multiply units and two addition units; this results in a peak vector performance of 102.4 gigaFLOPS
. For non-vectorized code, there is a scalar processor that runs at half the speed of the vector unit, i.e. 1.6 GHz. Up to 16 CPUs and 1 terabyte
of memory may be used in a single node. Each node is packaged in an air-cooled cabinet, similar in size to a standard 42U computer rack. The SX-9 series ranges from the single-node SX-9/B system with 4 CPUs to the maximum expansion stage with 512 nodes, 8,192 CPUs, and 970 TFLOPS peak performance. There is up to 4 TB/s shared memory bandwidth per node and 2×128 GB/s node interconnect bandwidth. The operating system is NEC's SUPER-UX
, a Unix-like
OS.
The SX-9 has the world's fastest vector CPU core. A fully equipped system with 512 nodes would be the world's fastest vector supercomputer at the time of release in the first quarter of 2008.
The German national meteorological service (DWD) operates two independent SX-9 cluster, in total with 976 processors, 31,232 GB of RAM
and 98 TFLOPS performance.
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...
built by NEC Corporation. The SX-9 Series implements an SMP
Symmetric multiprocessing
In computing, symmetric multiprocessing involves a multiprocessor computer hardware architecture where two or more identical processors are connected to a single shared main memory and are controlled by a single OS instance. Most common multiprocessor systems today use an SMP architecture...
system in a compact node module and uses an enhanced version of the single chip vector processor that was introduced with the SX-6
NEC SX-6
The SX-6 is a supercomputer built by NEC Corporation that debuted in 2001; the SX-6 was sold under license by Cray Inc. in the U.S. Each SX-6 single-node system contains up to eight vector processors, which share up to 64 GB of computer memory...
. The NEC SX-9 processors run at 3.2 GHz, with eight-way replicated vector pipes, each having two multiply units and two addition units; this results in a peak vector performance of 102.4 gigaFLOPS
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
. For non-vectorized code, there is a scalar processor that runs at half the speed of the vector unit, i.e. 1.6 GHz. Up to 16 CPUs and 1 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
of memory may be used in a single node. Each node is packaged in an air-cooled cabinet, similar in size to a standard 42U computer rack. The SX-9 series ranges from the single-node SX-9/B system with 4 CPUs to the maximum expansion stage with 512 nodes, 8,192 CPUs, and 970 TFLOPS peak performance. There is up to 4 TB/s shared memory bandwidth per node and 2×128 GB/s node interconnect bandwidth. The operating system is NEC's SUPER-UX
SUPER-UX
SUPER-UX, sometimes also annotated SuperUx or Super-UX, is the version of the Unix operating system that is used on NEC SX architecture supercomputers...
, a Unix-like
Unix-like
A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....
OS.
The SX-9 has the world's fastest vector CPU core. A fully equipped system with 512 nodes would be the world's fastest vector supercomputer at the time of release in the first quarter of 2008.
The German national meteorological service (DWD) operates two independent SX-9 cluster, in total with 976 processors, 31,232 GB of RAM
Ram
-Animals:*Ram, an uncastrated male sheep*Ram cichlid, a species of freshwater fish endemic to Colombia and Venezuela-Military:*Battering ram*Ramming, a military tactic in which one vehicle runs into another...
and 98 TFLOPS performance.
NEC Published Product Highlights
- 1.6 TFLOPS max. peak performance per node
- Up to 16 CPUs per node, manufactured in 65 nm CMOS technology
- Up to 64 GB of memory per CPU, 1 TB in a single node
- Up to 4 TB/s bandwidth per node, 256 GB/s per CPU
- IXS Super-Switch between nodes, up to 512 nodes supported, 256 GB/s per node (128 GB/s for each direction)
- 50% less power consumption compared to the NEC SX-8R