‘The most effective maker yet put together in the world’: China silently released record-breaking supercomputer– and somebody practically deconstructed its processor

February 22, 2024 by admin

(Image credit: Shutterstock/ Connect World)

China has actually silently introduced the Tianhe-3 supercomputer, which is thought to be the most effective device presently around.

The maker, constructed for the National Supercomputer Center in Guangzhou, has actually been shrouded in secrecy (as you would get out of a supercomputer established and integrated in China), stimulating a lot of speculation.

The Tianhe-3, likewise referred to as “Xingyi,” is believed to be a substantial leap forward in supercomputing innovation, possibly going beyond the abilities of the upcoming “El Capitan” supercomputer being established by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and AMD for the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

Practically deconstructing Tianhe-3's processor

In November, 2023, TheNextPlatform ran an analysis of the Top500 supercomputer rankings which recommended that the Tianhe-3 might have a peak efficiency of 2.05 exaflops and a continual efficiency of 1.57 exaflops on High Performance LINPACK. This, the website stated, would make it the “most effective maker yet put together in the world”.

The Tianhe-3 is the most recent in a series of supercomputers developed by the National University of Defense Technology in China. Its predecessors, the Tianhe-1 and Tianhe-2, likewise made substantial effect on the supercomputing world, with the Tianhe-2 still ranking amongst the leading 30 supercomputers even after numerous years of operation.

Among the most interesting elements of the Tianhe-3 is its processor. A current case research study on configuring the Matrix-3000 (MT-3000) accelerators, sent to arXiv, supplied some insight into the device's architecture. Exploring this, TheNextPlatform concluded that the Tianhe-3 utilizes a hybrid gadget with CPU and accelerator calculate along with 3 various type of memory, 2 of which lie in the calculate complex.

The website stated: “It is [more] similar to the AMD “Antares” MI300A CPU-GPU hybrid that is entering into El Capitan than it resembles the discrete CPU-GPU systems we see pressing the flops in AI and HPC systems nowadays. The MT-3000 is its own animal, and you may presume that it utilizes a chiplet product packaging architecture considered that Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC), the native Chinese foundry, most likely might not stuff sufficient transistors into a 14 nanometer procedure to make a monolithic die. Then once again, possibly this is a 10 nanometer or even a 7 nanometer gadget. If NUDT does not appreciate expense, then the yield can be awful so long as SMIC can discover 10s of countless excellent MT-3000 parts to make the system.”

The Tianhe-3 supercomputer will support numerous application circumstances, consisting of high-performance computing, AI big design training, and huge information analysis. It is anticipated to improve the multi-field application service abilities of the National Supercomputing Guangzhou Center, supplying services to Guangzhou City and Guangdong Province.