This is the fourth article in a series taken from the insideHPC Guide to Flexible HPC.
Organizations that implement high-performance computing (HPC) technologies have a wide range of requirements. From small manufacturing suppliers to national research institutions, using significant computing technologies is critical to creating innovative products and leading-edge research. No two HPC installations are the same.
For maximum return, budget, software requirements, performance and customization all must be considered before installing and operating a successful environment.
TYAN is a leading provider of Intel® Xeon®-based systems for a wide range of industries. When it comes to providing the component computing solutions that are required for a range of customers, TYAN’s long-time expertise in this area is critical for a successful implementation. End users can become more productive faster by working with suppliers that offer a wide range of servers and associated hardware.
All of the TYAN Intel Xeon server solutions are optimized to run applications extremely fast. Using Intel Xeon CPUs designed onto a board that offers a significant number of memory slots provides users with the performance they expect. From one-socket to four-socket solutions, TYAN offers systems that incorporate the Intel Xeon CPUs as well as the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. TYAN offers a wide range of systems with a variety of CPU sockets and a range of storage and network options. This is especially important, as every end-user environment has different requirements that must be met.
For the most demanding and cost-sensitive environments, the Intel® Xeon® E5-2600 v4 series of processors emerges as the leader. The latest processors from Intel, nicknamed “Broadwell-EP,” are included in all varieties in TYAN servers. The most popular are those systems based on the E5-2600 v4 processors. The Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 builds upon leading-edge performance that users have come to expect. Numerous world records have been achieved from business-oriented benchmarks to computationally intensive ones, at all configurations.
The Intel Xeon E5-2600 v4 processors can be used in two-socket systems, with a maximum addressability of 3TB memory (by deploying 128GB 3DS LRDIMMS). As the typical workhorse of an HPC data center, up to 44 cores are available for computation (two sockets of 22 cores each). TYAN has designed these systems so that a two-socket server can address up to 24 DIMMs in a server. By populating 64GB DIMMs in all slots, 1.5TB memory can be addressed in a compact form factor.
For the most demanding HPC users whose applications require a single operating system for parallelization, TYAN can deliver:
- a four-socket server that contains the Intel® Xeon® processor E7-8800 v4, or
- Intel® Xeon® processor E7- 4800 v4 CPUs
A four-socket system can address up to 6TB of memory, together with using 64 (Intel Xeon 4800 v4) to 96 (Intel Xeon E7-8800 v4) cores. This system is ideal for those that require maximum performance, and whose applications must address a significant amount of memory.
The most demanding application requires high core counts, maximum amounts of memory, and fast and persistent storage. As solid state disks (SSDs) become more widely used in computing systems, it is important for vendors to partner with leading suppliers to offer a wide range of SSDs. Since SSDs have no moving parts and are extremely high-performance as compared with hard disk drives (HDDs), modern HPC servers must be designed to incorporate these devices, in similar form factors as HDDs. The Intel ®SSD product line delivers the highest performance available, while maintaining enterprise-grade reliability. In addition, various Intel SSD DC products can scale in performance as computing and storage needs grow.
All of the aforementioned systems can incorporate from one to four Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors. The combination of high core count, high memory configurations and number of coprocessors gives both developers and users a supercomputer in a rack-mount enclosure. With more than one Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor installed in a server, applications that are able to take advantage of this amount of computing power will truly shine. However, it is important to make sure that the application has a significant amount of parallelism built in, and is designed to take advantage of the single instruction, multiple data architecture.
At the very high end of the server offerings from TYAN is a true supercomputer in 4U. The FT76-B7922 system can:
- hold up to four of the Intel Xeon CPUs
- has room for up to four of the Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors
With all of this power in a single server, application tuning is critical, or the machine can be set up to run multiple applications concurrently. TYAN’s FT76-B7922 provides for highly parallelized application deployment in various HPC segments, such as graphic virtualization, big data analysis and cloud computing.
The FT76-B7922 is the first multi-purpose server platform that simultaneously supports scale-up (fat node) and scale-out (many-core CPU node). The platform accommodates four Intel® Xeon® processor E7-8800/4800 v4 CPUs and four Intel Xeon Phi 7120P (5110P/3120P) cards, or four GPUs within the enclosure for typical HPC applications. With 1:1 CPU to Intel Xeon Phi coprocessor ratio or 1:1 CPU to GPU ratio, TYAN’s FT76-B7922 provides a high price/performance and performance/watt for HPC community that needs CPU- and GPU-intensive computing workloads.
In coming weeks, this series of articles will explore:
In coming weeks, this series will consist of articles that explore:
- Challenges in HPC Environments
- Requirements in HPC Environments
- Industries
- TYAN® Solutions for Flexible HPC (this article)
- Successful Implementations
If you prefer you can download the complete insideHPC Guide to Flexible HPC, courtesy of Tyan – Click Here.
