| Die-shrunk Cell processor, blade run Linux |
May 19, 2008
 IBM announced a Linux-compatible blade for HPC (high performance computing) applications that is based on a new 65nm version of the Cell processor. The IBM BladeCenter QS22's 3.2GHz IBM PowerXCell 8i processor is touted as offering five times the double-precision performance of the original Cell/B.E.
The QS22 can handle workloads that previously required dozens of servers, says IBM, and is designed for demanding medical, scientific, simulation, financial analytics, seismic processing, signal processing, and image processing applications. It is also intended to help reduce space and electricity requirements for enterprise data centers.
IBM BladeCenter QS22
For now, anyway, the new IBM PowerXCell 8i processor is not available separately. Relatively few details have been released on the new processor, which has been die-shrunk from 90nm to a 65nm fabrication process. It supports up to 16 times more memory (up to 32GB) than its predecessors, and supports standard DDR-2 memory. It is clocked to 3.2GHz, offering a single "PPE" (PowerPC processing element) core supported by eight enhanced double precision (eDP) "SPE" (synergistic processing engine) cores. It also includes 512KB of L2 cache per processor, plus 256KB of local store memory for each eDP SPE. The processor is compliant with the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) Architecture co-developed by IBM, Sony, and Toshiba, which is best known for its use in Sony's Playstation3.
BladeCenter H Chassis |
The QS22 uses a "single-wide" blade form factor. Up to 14 such blades fit in IBMs BladeCenter H (pictured at right), for claimed performance up to 6.4 TFLOPS Single Precision and up to 3.0 TFLOPS Double Precision. Each blade connects via two redundant paths to the passive midplane and the integrated switching and power infrastructure.
Specs listed for the QS22 include:- Processor -- up to 2 x IBM PowerXCell 8i processors
- L2 cache -- 512KB per processor, plus 256KB of local store for each eDP SPE
- Memory -- 32 GB DDR-2 memory; optional I/O buffer memory DIMMs (up to 2GB)
- Storage -- optional 8GB uFDM Flash Drive (in 2H 2008); optional Serial Attached SCSI daughter cards (via PCI-X)
- Networking -- 2 x gigabit Ethernet; optional dual-port 4x InfiniBand HCA (via PCI-Express)
- Operating system (OS) -- Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2 (when available)
Leveraging the lower power draw of the new Cell processors, the AS22 is said to offer greater performance-per-Watt and improved power management than previous BladeCenter products. Power efficiency is said to be improved via a "Rear Door Heat eXchanger" that helps to reduce data center hot spots.
SDK for Multicore Acceleration architecture
(Click to enlarge) |
Big Blue touts the openness of Linux as helping data center managers improve power efficiency. The AS22 ships with a newly upgraded Software Development Kit (SDK) for Multicore Acceleration v3 based on Red Hat's forthcoming Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5.2. The SDK is said to offer enhancements and templates leveraging the QS22's new features (see diagram at right). The SDK includes an Eclipse-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE), performance tools, as well as Accelerated Library Framework (ALF) and Data Communication and Synchronization (DaCS) libraries. In addition, the company has made available thousands of pages of technical documentation on the Cell/B.E. Architecture, including a free, full-system simulator.
Some 50 customers are said to have signed up for the QS22, including:- Threshold Animation Studios -- Pre-visualization system for previewing CGI footage
- Platform Computing -- "Symphony" HPC infrastructure for performing pre- and post-trade analytics, said to run portfolio simulations up to 80 percent faster
- Simudyne -- Visual, immersive, real-time simulation engine for petroleum exploration and other applications
Availability
The IBM BladeCenter QS22 will be available in early June, says IBM, at prices ranging from $10,000 to $12,000 per blade, dependent on memory options. The SDK for Multicore Acceleration v3 is available now. More information on the QS22 may be found here and here, and more on the PowerXCell 8i processor may be found here.
Mercury Computer Systems recently shipped an HPC blade system based on the 90nm Cell processors that, like the QS22,comes with a Linux-based SDK.
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