China Arms Upgraded Tianhe-2A Hybrid Supercomputer (nextplatform.com) 23
New submitter kipperstem77 shares an excerpt from a report via The Next Platform: The National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) has, according to James Lin, vice director for the Center of High Performance Computing (HPC) at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, who divulged the plans last year, is building one of the three pre-exascale machines [that China is currently investing in], in this case a kicker to the Tianhe-1A CPU-GPU hybrid that was deployed in 2010 and that put China on the HPC map. This exascale system will be installed at the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin, not the one in Guangzhou, according to Lin. This machine is expected to use ARM processors, and we think it will very likely use Matrix2000 DSP accelerators, too, but this has not been confirmed. The second pre-exascale machine will be an upgrade to the TaihuLight system using a future Shenwei processor, but it will be installed at the National Supercomputing Center in Jinan. And the third pre-exascale machine being funded by China is being architected in conjunction with AMD, with licensed server processor technology, and which everyone now thinks is going to be based on Epyc processors and possibly with Radeon Instinct GPU coprocessors. The Next Platform has a slide embedded in its report "showing the comparison between Tianhe-2, which was the fastest supercomputer in the world for two years, and Tianhe-2A, which will be vying for the top spot when the next list comes out." Every part of this system shows improvements.
All for porn (Score:2, Funny)
why else name it NUDT?
Title scared me (Score:2)
For a second I thought, OMG they're arming (as in giving weapons) to their supercomputers! I had no idea that Chinese A.I. was so advanced, maybe Elon Musk (and Putin?) are right! (Elon Musk is afraid of the Roboapocalypse and Putin said whoever controls A.I. will control the world).
Anyway, does anyone have an idea how well these systems perform with the native (home grown in China) processors? Are they using the ARM chips as a backup plan or have they even given up on their own efforts? (doubtful). By
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Are they using the ARM chips as a backup plan or have they even given up on their own efforts?
These processors are fabricated in China
By the way, is China still restricted from access to U.S. Supercomputer technology (seems hardly worth it now)
There are restrictions on supercomputers and also on the latest steppers for fabrication. These restrictions are seldom based on any logical rationale. Remember back in the 1990s when T-shirts were classified as munitions and banned for export [arstechnica.net]?
The most likely outcome of these restrictions is to compel China to develop their own technology, improve it until it matches or improves on western tech, and then take over the market. So we will end up dependent on them.
and perhaps that category should be extended to include A.I.?
The
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they dont have plants yet...
GlobalFoundries, Intel, Samsung, SK Hynix, TSMC and UMC all are building new fabs or expanding their existing plants in China however they estimate 50% could fail to be built
TSMC and in fact anyone with taiwan heritage should be worried very very worried how they are going to be competitive as a nation going forward...
as soon as a design enters that region I am doubtful the PLA will not be kept out...
the scale linked in the article is very small 19PB is basically 19 racks its not
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Oh they have plants alright. Plus they are building more. The problem is they don't have leading edge processes. SMIC would be one example of a Chinese foundry.
Kudos for the title hook (Score:3)
1st thought: What, missiles? Drones?
2nd thought: Actual arms on the computer.
3rd thought: Dammit, got me.
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They gave an arm and a leg for a supercomputer.
The want all the bitcoins for themselves (Score:4, Interesting)
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Actually IIRC Tianhe is the name the Chinese give to the Milky Way galaxy.
Only 17.6 MW? (Score:2)
A SMALL aluminium smelter can consumer over 500MW..
Really, 17.6MW is nothing on any industrial scale..
Hell, the Chinese have 9MW electric locomotive tractors, which they use in tandem..
Now, if it was 1.21GW, and involved a flux capacitor... then we would be talking!
Arrrr.... (Score:2)
So they 'ARM'ed them. The didn't arm them? Just correcting an editorial error. K Thx Bai.