The age of GPU-computing got another huge boost today as a press release from NVidia shows that their new GT300 “Fermi” chip is more than vaporware and will, in fact, be the foundation of Oak Ridge’s newest supercomputer.
Jeff Nichols, ORNL associate lab director for Computing and Computational Sciences, joined NVIDIA co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on stage during his keynote at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference. (…)
“This would be the first co-processing architecture that Oak Ridge has deployed for open science, and we are extremely excited about the opportunities it creates to solve huge scientific challenges,” Nichols said. “With the help of NVIDIA technology, Oak Ridge proposes to create a computing platform that will deliver exascale computing within ten years.”
I don’t think this has anything to do with ORNL & UT’s latest announcement of their “Nautilus” NSF-funded machine. There’s currently no real specs for what this new hybrid supercomputer will be, but they promise exascale compute-capabilities. Read the full announcement after the break.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory Looks to NVIDIA “Fermi” Architecture For New Supercomputer
Oak Ridge Supercomputer Targets NVIDIA GPU Computing Technology to Achieve Order of Magnitude Performance Over Today’s Fastest Supercomputer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -Sep. 30, 2009- Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) announced plans today for a new supercomputer that will use NVIDIA®’s next generation CUDA™ GPU architecture, codenamed “Fermi”. Used to pursue research in areas such as energy and climate change, ORNL’s supercomputer is expected to be 10-times more powerful than today’s fastest supercomputer.
Jeff Nichols, ORNL associate lab director for Computing and Computational Sciences, joined NVIDIA co-founder and CEO Jen-Hsun Huang on stage during his keynote at NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference. He told the audience of 1,400 researchers and developers that “Fermi” would enable substantial scientific breakthroughs that would be impossible without the new technology.
“This would be the first co-processing architecture that Oak Ridge has deployed for open science, and we are extremely excited about the opportunities it creates to solve huge scientific challenges,” Nichols said. “With the help of NVIDIA technology, Oak Ridge proposes to create a computing platform that will deliver exascale computing within ten years.”
ORNL also announced it will be creating the Hybrid Multicore Consortium. The goals of this consortium are to work with the developers of major scientific codes to prepare those applications to run on the next generation of supercomputers built using GPUs.
“The first two generations of the CUDA GPU architecture enabled NVIDIA to make real in-roads into the scientific computing space, delivering dramatic performance increases across a broad spectrum of applications,” said Bill Dally, chief scientist at NVIDIA. “The ‘Fermi’ architecture is a true engine of science and with the support of national research facilities such as ORNL, the possibilities are endless.”
For more information on “Fermi”, NVIDIA’s next generation CUDA compute and graphics architecture, please visit: www.nvidia.com/fermi and for more information on ORNL, please visit www.ornl.gov.
About NVIDIA
NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) awakened the world to the power of computer graphics when it invented the graphics processing unit (GPU) in 1999. Since then, it has consistently set new standards in visual computing with breathtaking, interactive graphics available on devices ranging from portable media players to notebooks to workstations. NVIDIA’s expertise in programmable GPUs has led to breakthroughs in parallel processing which make supercomputing inexpensive and widely accessible. Fortune magazine has ranked NVIDIA #1 in innovation in the semiconductor industry for two years in a row. For more information, see www.nvidia.com.For more information, contact:
Andrew Humber
NVIDIA Corporation
(408) 416 7943
[email protected]Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, features, impact, performance and capabilities of Fermi architecture; and ORNL’s plans to use Fermi architecture to build its supercomputer are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: development of more efficient or faster technology; design, manufacturing or software defects; the impact of technological development and competition; changes in consumer preferences and demands; customer adoption of different standards or our competitor’s products; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Form 10-Q for the fiscal period ended July 26, 2009. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on our website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
# # #©© 2009 NVIDIA Corporation. All rights reserved. NVIDIA, the NVIDIA logo, Tesla, CUDA, Fermi, and GeForce are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of NVIDIA Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Other company and product names may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated. Features, pricing, availability, and specifications are subject to change without notice.
