Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
HPC community is concerned about how much bandwidth will be available
of of the chip and how many processors or threads will be required to effec-
tively utilize the network interfaces. The trend with General-Purpose Graphics
Processing Units (GPGPUs), Intel Phi processors, and ARM processors is to
have many interfaces but individually lower performing processing cores. With
lower performing processor cores, it is yet to be determined as to what will
be required to saturate the links of such high-bandwidth networks.
The supporting infrastructure networks, such as the storage networks, are
unlikely to be implemented with the advanced technology required for a fu-
ture cluster interconnect primarily due to costs. This brings up a concern
regarding the compatibility from the cluster environment to the external sup-
port networks. Not only is functionality a requirement, but also minimizing
costs of working with the external networks with minimal additional specialty
hardware.
33.4 Conclusion
Because of the expected scale of future clusters, reliability is a concern
with potential new technology. Vendor integration of future technologies will
determine the reliability impacts to the system. Some effective ways to increase
system reliability might be to reduce the number of components, such as
combining processors and network functionality, as well as broadening the
install community to create community support.
Regardless of the risks, the most promising future technology for cluster
interconnect at this point is silicon photonics due to the increased bandwidth
capabilities and reduced power and complexity. These attributes could be the
fundamental design criteria for scaling to an exascale platform.
Bibliography
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http://newsroom.intel.com/
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industry-leading-high-performance-computing-interconnect-
technology-and-expertise
.
[2] Intel Augments Networking Portfolio with Best-in-Class High Performance
Computing Fabric Technology.
http://www.intel.com/content/www/
us/en/high-performance-computing/infiniband-products.html
.
