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IBM pushing System z, Power7+ chips as high as 5.5GHz, mainframes get mightier
Ten-core, 2.4GHz Xeons? Pshaw. IBM is used to the kind of clock speeds and brute force power that lead to Europe-dominating supercomputers. Big Blue has no intentions of letting its guard down when it unveils its next generation processors at the upcoming Hot Chips conference: the company is teasing that the "zNext" chip at the heart of a future System z mainframe will ramp up to 5.5GHz -- that's faster than the still-speedy 5.2GHz z196 that has led IBM's pack since 2010. For those who don't need quite that big a sledgehammer, the technology veteran is hinting that its upcoming Power7+ processors will be up to 20 percent faster than the long-serving Power7, whose current 4.14GHz peak clock rate may seem quaint. We'll know just how much those extra cycles mean when IBM takes to the conference podium on August 29th, but it's safe to say that our databases and large-scale simulations won't know what hit them.
IBM and NCSA end their Blue Waters affair, go back to just being supercomputing friends
It seems that IBM and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois have hit a snag in their once fruitful relationship. After nearly four years of partnering for the Blue Waters petascale supercomputer, the NCSA's recently released a joint statement explaining that IBM's "terminated" its involvement with the project. If you'll recall, IBM was supplying its latest Power7 rigs to get all that data flowing, but the company's now decided that Ol' Blue will require more resources than initially anticipated. Apparently, there were talks to try and keep the spark alive, but since those fell through both have decided to return each others CDs and hoodies assets involved with the project (per contract terms): IBM gives back the money, while the NCSA returns any hardware supplied. The two plan on remaining in touch for future endeavours, and the NCSA doesn't appear to be too down either as it'll be consulting with the National Science Foundation to keep Blue Waters afloat. You'll find the official statement in the source link below, but we've included a video rendition of how we'd like to imagine it past the break. [Photo credit: kosheahan]
IBM touts new Power7 systems, still no mass market Watson
IBM's latest announcement probably won't get us any closer to securing our very own in-house version of Watson, but the firm is boasting a new line of Power7 products that includes an upgraded version of the supercomputer's server. First up are the BladeCenter PS703 and PS704, sporting 16 cores and 32 cores, respectively -- the PS704 touts a 60 percent increase in speed over its predecessors. The Power 750, the same system that gave Watson the stuff to slaughter those humans on Jeopardy!, is getting an upgrade that supports as many as 32 cores and can run up to 128 simultaneous threads, while the Power 755 offers up high-performance computing with 32 cores of its own. The cheapest version of the Power 750 Express rings in at about $30,000. So, no, we won't be battling Watson in a Jeopardy! Home Edition showdown anytime soon, but we're happy to see that our favorite supercomputer could be even smarter -- or at the very least, faster -- the next time it shows up on the boob tube. Full PR after the break.
NCSA prepares for Blue Waters petascale supercomputer, and we've got the video to prove it
How often do you get to see an unboxing of this magnitude? Our buddy Bill at the NCSA (National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois) has been kind enough to hit us up with a video that shows the arrival and installation of the facility's new IBM 780 hardware at the National Petascale Computing Facility. This hardware will allow scientists to prep code in anticipation of the Blue Waters -- which, as previously reported, will be the largest publicly accessible supercomputer in the world when it goes online in 2011, thanks to its over 16,000 Power7 nodes. Video after the break.
IBM specs out Power7 systems, starts shipping them to your local server farm
Sure, there's not much chance of popping down to your local hypermarket and picking up something with a Power7 roaring inside, but there's also nothing stopping you from a bit of vicarious investigation, now is there? IBM's eight-core, 1.2 billion-transistor Power7 chips have begun shipping as promised, with the entry-level Power 750 Express starting at a few bucks over $34,000. That offers you some truly supreme computing power, as each of the eight cores can run four simultaneous threads for up to 32 parallel tasks, with 8MB of embedded DRAM (acting as L3 cache) per core. The top-tier POWER 780 system maxes out with either eight 3.8GHz eight-core chips or eight 4.1GHz quad-core units, allied to a maximum of 2TB of DDR3 RAM and up to 24 SSDs -- though you'll have to call IBM to find out the price (presumably so that a trained professional can counsel you after hearing the spectacular number). Watch the video after the break while we try to cajole IBM into sending us one for benchmarking.
IBM developing 10 petaflop supercomputer, Power7 to ship next year
The last we heard, IBM was hard at work on its Power7 processor. Now the company's announcing that the thirty-two core chip -- and copious amounts of eDRAM -- are at the heart of its newest supercomputing project. To be housed at the University of Illinois, IBM's Blue Waters will be the largest publicly accessible supercomputer in the world when it goes online in 2011, theoretically capable of achieving 16 petaflop speeds by connecting up to 16,384 Power7 nodes, although IBM said that initially the theoretical peak performance will likely be closer to 10 petaflops -- with more realistic sustained real-world performance near one petaflop. To keep things from overheating, a system was devised that includes water-cooling for the whole rack, including the processor itself. But why should government agencies and large corporations have all the fun? According to CNET, IBM plans to ship Power7 processors with commercial server products sometime next year.
IBM brings the ruckus -- and new Power7 processor
IBM likes its servers and supercomputers. A lot. After giving the Power6 plenty of self-congratulatory publicity, Big Blue is ready to move on to the 7th generation of Power, which is set to be announced at the Hot Chips conference this evening. With eight cores and up to four SMT4 threads running on each, the 45nm Power7 can perform 32 simultaneous tasks per chip. The designers have slapped in a whopping 32MB of eDRAM in each chip for improved latency, dual DDR3 memory controllers for a sustained 100GB per second bandwidth, and even error correcting code and memory mirroring for redundancy. Sounds like a major boon for research into the brains of mice and the history of dirty words, but we don't expect to hear much about this proc outside the server farm.
