SC16: Sugon Announces the Roadmap for Exascale Computing

SALT LAKE CITY, Nov. 15, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- From November 13-18, the 29th Supercomputing Conference (SC16) will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. Per the newly announced TOP500 list -- an independently compiled list of the number of supercomputers per nation -- China has 171 supercomputers, the joint most together with the United States. Sugon, the leading HPC vendor in China, delivers 47 of the computers on the TOP500 list, securing a steady fourth place among global sellers.

Besides the TOP500 ranking, Sugon has fixed attention on Exascale Computing, the next "jewel in crown" of HPC (high performance computing) and for the first time brings China's Exascale Computing roadmap to an international stage.

Exascale Computing faces many challenges

To achieve Exascale Computing, in addition to the computation speed of floating point, it is also necessary to meet many major challenges in energy consumption, programming, storage, reliability and other aspects.

Towards those challenges, Sugon has put forward a series of competitive solutions in computing systems, network architecture, storage framework, system software, cooling systems, applications and others. The solutions could verify the feasibility of Exascale Computing. Sugon has begun R&D of the related prototype in order to test the core technologies.

Sugon's Exascale Computing solution can be interpreted into several technique aspects, including hyper-converged self-adaptive parallel system architecture, local processor based high-performance compute nodes, high performance and scalability Torus interconnect (Exascale Computing), hyper-converged self-adaptive application software design, high-efficiency full immersion cooling with multi-dimension self-adaptive power consumption management, multilayer and multi-protocol HPSS, multilayer integrated fault-tolerance technique, large-scale parallel application port and optimization. All these techniques will be tested on the Prototype system for the Exascale Computing.

"By adopting hyper-converged computation and self-adaptive application technique, Sugon's Exascale Computing HPC Prototype system features in the user-friendly ecosystem and the wide applicability. It can well support a wide range of applications such as HPC, deep learning, big data and cloud computing," said Mr. Zhennan Cao, General Manager of HPC Division of Sugon.

Breaking the PUE limit, Sugon liquid cooling technology opens a new era

Another eye-catching technology Sugon has brought to SC16 is its latest liquid cooling technology. With years of technical accumulation, Sugon presents the highest level of liquid cooling technology in China, and serves as the foremost driving force and the indicator for China's liquid cooling.

Inevitably, large scale computing systems, similar to the Exascale Computing computer, could induce extreme high power consumption. To lower PUE (power usage effectiveness) value, Sugon's Exascale Computing HPC Prototype adopts a full immersion phase-change cooling system. The heat media experiences a cycle of vaporization inside server and liquefaction outdoors and the cooling system holds full-year outdoor natural cooling feature. Therefore, the expected PUE value is lowered to ~1.1.

Full immersion phase-change cooling technology can significantly increase density and reduce computer room area. It is an ideal solution to solve many problems that many data centers have suffered for long time, for example the high construction cost and the power waste.

TC4600E-LP liquid cooling server, the first mass-produced liquid cooling blade server in China, has also gained a lot of attention during SC16. It uses CPU cold plate technology, significantly reduces power consumption and enhances system stability. TC4600E-LP can lower PUE < 1.2, bringing higher server density, reducing transfer temperature difference, as well as full-year natural cooling.

"Cold plate liquid cooling server has entered mass production. Our immersed vaporization liquid cooled server, with better cooling performance and lower PUE, will soon enter the market," added Cao.

Moreover, Sugon also carries the XSystem, the latest deep learning system. The software platform of the system is based on an open design framework of HPC + big data learning. In contrast, the hardware system is developed by ICT-Sugon-NVDIA deep learning joint lab. In short, the XSystem is a highly cost-effective all-in-one solution for the deep learning market.

HPC applications match the "China Speed"

The annual ACM Gordon Bell prize always attracts the spotlight of SC16. This year, three applications from Sunway TaihuLight are shortlisted for the prize. This is the first time that China qualifies for the list.

"It indicates that China's HPC applications have matched the progress with China's development, an encouraging step forward," said Cao. "Sugon has been devoted to promoting HPC applications in order to more efficiently support China's basic scientific research, industrial restructuring and upgrading, and development of IT industry."

Regarding HPC applications, Sugon has participated in a variety of critical projects, include but is not limited to:

• China's own Prototype System of Earth System Numerical Simulator, which unveils deeper understanding of our earth;
• Providing technical supports on air quality guarantee for APEC Summit in Beijing and G20 Summit in Hangzhou;
• Providing computing supports for orbit design of Tiangong-2 space lab;
• Providing computing environment for mass data transfer and analysis in FAST (Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope);
• China's Exascale Computing R&D.

For many years, Sugon has stuck to application-orientated R&D. Moving forward, Sugon will commit itself to expanding HPC applications to a much wider range, such as weather forecasting, oil exploration, nuclear energy utilization, automobile collision test, electromagnetic radiation, fluid mechanics, gene sequencing and materials science.

"We treasure such a great exposure opportunity," said Cao, "SC16 not only serves as a stage for Sugon to showcase our products and technologies, but more importantly, it provides us with a global platform to communicate with our international peers to further enhance China's HPC development, especially in cutting-edge development, understanding of technology trend, application development as well as market-oriented technology transformation."

SOURCE Sugon