PERCS
Encyclopedia
PERCS officially known as the Power 775, is IBM
's answer to DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems
(HPCS) initiative.
IBM officially announced the Power 775 on July 12, 2011 and started to ship systems in August 2011.
and Sun Microsystems
, that received the HPCS grant for Phase II. In this phase, IBM collaborated with a consortium of 12 universities and the Los Alamos National Lab to pursue an adaptable computing system with the goal of commercial viability of new chip technology, new computer architecture, operating systems, compiler and programming environments.
IBM was chosen for Phase III in November 2006, and granted $244 million in funds for continuing development of PERCS technology and delivering prototype systems by 2010.
system, however the high costs and complexity of the system resulted in its contract being cancelled.
microprocessor, AIX operating system, X10
programming language and General Parallel File System.
is a water cooled rack module, 30 inches wide, 6 feet deep and 3.5 inches (2u) high. Each drawer comprise up to eight nodes (single O/S image) with a MCM
with four POWER7 CPUs each, and 16 DDR3 SDRAM
slots per MCM for a total of 256 POWER7 cores and 2 TB RAM. Each drawer also has eight optical connect controller chips, connecting neighboring MCMs, PCIe peripherals and other compute nodes. One rack can house up to a dozen Power 775 drawers for a total performance of 96 TFLOPS.
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's answer to DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems
High Productivity Computing Systems
High Productivity Computing Systems is a DARPA project for developing a new generation of economically viable high productivity computing systems for national security and industry in the 2002-2010 timeframe....
(HPCS) initiative.
IBM officially announced the Power 775 on July 12, 2011 and started to ship systems in August 2011.
Background
The HPCS program is a three-year research and development effort. IBM was one of three companies, along with CrayCray
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,...
and Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, that received the HPCS grant for Phase II. In this phase, IBM collaborated with a consortium of 12 universities and the Los Alamos National Lab to pursue an adaptable computing system with the goal of commercial viability of new chip technology, new computer architecture, operating systems, compiler and programming environments.
IBM was chosen for Phase III in November 2006, and granted $244 million in funds for continuing development of PERCS technology and delivering prototype systems by 2010.
Deployment
The first supercomputer using PERCS technology was intended to be the Blue WatersBlue Waters
Blue Waters is the name of a petascale supercomputer to be deployed at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign...
system, however the high costs and complexity of the system resulted in its contract being cancelled.
Technology
PERCS will use IBM's large scale technologies from servers and supercomputers like the POWER7POWER7
POWER7 is a Power Architecture microprocessor released in 2010 that succeeded the POWER6. POWER7 was developed by IBM at several sites including IBM's Rochester, MN; Austin, TX; Essex Junction, Vermont; T. J. Watson Research Center, NY; Bromont, QC and Böblingen, Germany laboratories...
microprocessor, AIX operating system, X10
X10 (programming language)
X10 is a programming language being developed by IBM at the Thomas J. Watson Research Center as part of the Productive, Easy-to-use, Reliable Computing System project funded by DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems program...
programming language and General Parallel File System.
Power 775
Formerly known as the POWER7 IH, the Power 775Power 775 (supercomputing)
The Power 775 is a supercomputing component from IBM Corporation.Formerly known as the POWER7 IH, the Power 775 is part of the PERCS - IBM's answer to DARPA's High Productivity Computing Systems initiative...
is a water cooled rack module, 30 inches wide, 6 feet deep and 3.5 inches (2u) high. Each drawer comprise up to eight nodes (single O/S image) with a MCM
Multi-Chip Module
A multi-chip module is a specialized electronic package where multiple integrated circuits , semiconductor dies or other discrete components are packaged onto a unifying substrate, facilitating their use as a single component...
with four POWER7 CPUs each, and 16 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...
slots per MCM for a total of 256 POWER7 cores and 2 TB RAM. Each drawer also has eight optical connect controller chips, connecting neighboring MCMs, PCIe peripherals and other compute nodes. One rack can house up to a dozen Power 775 drawers for a total performance of 96 TFLOPS.