Scott Parker, Argonne
In this video from the 2017 Argonne Training Program on Extreme-Scale Computing, Scott Parker from Argonne presents: Architectures of the Argonne Cray XC40 KNL System “Theta”.
Designed in collaboration with Intel and Cray, Theta is a 9.65-petaflops system based on the second-generation Intel Xeon Phi processor and Cray’s high-performance computing software stack. Capable of nearly 10 quadrillion calculations per second, Theta will enable researchers to break new ground in scientific investigations that range from modeling the inner workings of the brain to developing new materials for renewable energy applications.
“Theta’s unique architectural features represent a new and exciting era in simulation science capabilities,” said ALCF Director of Science Katherine Riley. “These same capabilities will also support data-driven and machine-learning problems, which are increasingly becoming significant drivers of large-scale scientific computing.”
Theta System Configuration
- 20 racks
- 3,624 nodes
- 231,935 cores
- 56 TB MCDRAM
- 679 TB DDR4
- 453 TB SSD
- Aries interconnect with Dragonfly configuration
- 10 PB Lustre file system
- Peak performance of 9.65 petaflops
Scott Parker is the Lead for Performance Tools and Programming Models at the ALCF. He received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Lehigh University, and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Prior to joining Argonne, he worked at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, where he focused on high-performance computing and scientific applications. At Argonne since 2008, he works on performance tools, performance optimization, and spectral element computational fluid dynamics solvers.
