Marrying Many-core Accelerators and InfiniBand for a New Commodity Processor

TL;DR

This paper proposes a new heterogeneous processor integrating many-core accelerators and InfiniBand for HPC, aiming to enable cost-effective exa-scale computing with broad enterprise market applicability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel processor design combining many-core accelerators with InfiniBand, tailored for HPC and enterprise markets, facilitating mass production and cost reduction.

Findings

Design of a heterogeneous processor with integrated network controller

Potential for widespread adoption in HPC and enterprise markets

Cost advantages through custom development for large-scale production

Abstract

During the last 15 years, the supercomputing industry has been using mass-produced, off-the-shelf components to build cluster computers. Such components are not perfect for HPC purposes, but are cheap due to effect of scale in their production. The coming exa-scale era changes the landscape: exa-scale computers will contain components in quantities large enough to justify their custom development and production. We propose a new heterogeneous processor, equipped with a network controller and designed specifically for HPC. We then show how it can be used for enterprise computing market, guaranteeing its widespread adoption and therefore low production costs.