FRANKFURT, Germany,
July 13, 2015 /PRNewswire/
-- Researchers of the Barcelona Supercomputing Center
(BSC) involved in the Mont-Blanc project, have successfully tested
one innovative server platform, based on the 64bit Cavium (NASDAQ:
CAVM) ThunderX ARMv8 chip and integrated by E4 Computer
Engineering. The aim of the test was to prove the portability of
the Mont-Blanc system software stack on new high-performance ARM
based server platforms. In order to perform the tests, BSC has
called for support from the Italian leading hardware OEM E4
Computer Engineering, as their collaboration goes back to when one
of the first prototype of ARM+GPU cluster was devised, to produce a
newer and more performing version of the cluster.
The E4's system has been configured with the HPC software
ecosystem developed during the past three years within the
Mont-Blanc project and underwent strict tests to verify its memory
bandwidth, floating point performance and energy-efficiency. Using
a set of benchmarks, the new 48-core Thunder-X provided by Cavium,
Inc. have been tested with extremely satisfactory results and
perfect stability of the system.
E4 Computer Engineering specializes in the production and
architectural integration of complete and customized solutions, for
environments ranging from high performance computing to design of
turn-key datacenters. E4 HPC customers include leaders such
as CERN and ENEA, where they have delivered solutions for workloads
ranging from processing data from CERN's Large Hadron Collider to
wave modeling in the Mediterranean Sea.
ThunderX ARMv8 SoCs are uniquely suited to drive performance for
these systems, with 48 custom cores, high memory bandwidth and
capacity, onboard workload accelerators and integrated network and
storage capability. Focused on workloads such as high-energy
physics and molecular dynamics, the ThunderX-based systems will
deliver best-in-class performance combined with lower cost and
power consumption than delivered by comparable systems.
"We follow with interest the activity of E4 in developing
ARM-based platforms since the early days," said Filippo Mantovani, technical coordinator of the
Mont-Blanc project and senior researcher at BSC. "We wanted to show
that our HPC system software is able to run also on standard
production machines and not only in the Mont-Blanc prototypes and
we finally manage it."
"E4's mission is to deliver cutting-edge custom solutions for
our customers," said Piero Altoe, VP
Research & Development, E4 Computer Engineering. "We wanted
powerful and highly-scalable CPUs for our new ARKA servers, that
deliver outstanding performance combined with reduced power
consumption and we worked on that direction to meet BSC
requests."
Additional information available at the European Exascale
Projects booth, #634 and at the E4 Computer Engineering booth #914,
at ISC15 in Frankfurt, Germany
(13th-15th July).
About the Mont-Blanc project
The Mont-Blanc project, partially funded by the European
Commission's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013 under grant
agreement n° 288777 and 610402) with over 16
million Euros until October
2016, brings together leading European technology companies
such as Bull, ARM and Allinea; some of the most important
supercomputing centres in Europe:
JSC, LRZ, and HLRS (Germany),
GENCI (France), CINECA
(Italy) and BSC (Spain); and leading academic partners like
CEA, CNRS, Inria, the University of Bristol and University of
Stuttgart. More information on
page www.montblanc-project.eu
About E4 Computer Engineering
Established in 2002, E4 Computer Engineering designs and
manufactures high performance systems which aim to accomplish both
industrial and scientific research requirements and to reach a
variety of customers ranging from universities to computing
centers. E4's focus is on HPC although our expertise extends to all
segments of IT. Thanks to the established experience and the
outstanding quality of our solutions, E4 Computer Engineering is
acknowledged and appreciated as a valuable technology vendor by
prestigious organizations like C.E.R.N.in Geneva. E4 designs each system individually to
deliver highly personalized, cost effective and power saving
solutions.
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SOURCE E4 Computer Engineering; Cavium, Inc.; Mont-Blanc