Limitations of the PlayStation 3 for High Performance Cluster Computing
Limitations of the PlayStation 3 for High Performance Cluster Computing
复制标题
PlayStation 3 高性能集群计算的局限性
DOI：
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发表时间：
2007
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
J. Kurzak
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
A. Buttari;J. Dongarra;J. Kurzak
功耗，散热和其他物理限制正在推动
微处理器行业大多数
处理器制造商（例如英特尔和AMD）正在遵循更常规的
方法，由均质的对称多态组成
执行单元在同一一角钱上复制；
一些缓存级别（通常是L2和L3）和其他制造商
提议的仍然均匀的方法，但更强调
并行性和超线程。
Ultrasparc T1（称为“尼亚加拉”）。
最多八个同质核心每个是四向超线程
提供32个尼亚加拉处理器的最大平行度。
由于它提供了用于Web服务器和数据库应用程序的主要开发
整数操作的高计算能力，仔细使用
指针算术和弦处理。
探索核心具有不同建筑特征的异质设计。
一个这样的例子是由STI开发的细胞宽带引擎[22,17,19,18]
由索尼，东芝和IBM组成的财团。
浮点计算能力，这使其成为相当大的候选者
高性能计算系统。
BladeCenter QS20，2006年9月12日。该刀片配备了
两个细胞处理器，每个处理器各有512 MB存储器，并连接在NUMA中
配置；
Infiniband网络接口。
加上高速网络界面的功率使其成为一个很好的
高性能集群计算的候选人。
（11月11日），索尼发布了PlayStation 3（PS3）游戏机
如果此控制台不适合高性能计算，它仍然是等效的
有一个（剥离）的电池处理器及其价格（600美元）肯定使
这是构建基于单元格的群集的有吸引力的解决方案
在评估PS3平台的性能和限制时
性能集群计算。
Power consumption, heat dissipation and other physical limitations are pushing
the microprocessor industry towards multicore design patterns. Most of the
processor manufacturers, such as Intel and AMD, are following more conventional
approaches, which consist of homogeneous, symmetric multicores where
execution units are replicated on the same dime; multiple execution units share
some cache level (generally L2 and L3) and the bus to memory. Other manufacturers
proposed still homogeneous approaches but with a stronger emphasis on
parallelism and hyperthreading. This is, for example, the case of Sun with the
UltraSPARC T1 (known as “Niagara”). The UltraSPARC T1 [25,24] can have
up to eight homogeneous cores each of which is four-way hyperthreaded which
delivers a maximum parallelism degree of thirty-two. The Niagara processor is
mostly developed for web servers and database applications since it provides
high computational power for integer operations, which are used considerably in
pointer arithmetics and string processing. Yet other chip manufacturers started
exploring heterogeneous designs where cores have different architectural features.
One such example is the Cell Broadband Engine [22,17,19,18] developed by STI,
a consortium formed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM. The Cell BE has outstanding
floating-point computational power, which makes it a considerable candidate for
high performance computing systems. IBM shipped the first Cell-based system,
the BladeCenter QS20, on September 12th 2006. This blade is equipped with
two Cell processors with a 512 MB memory each and connected in a NUMA
configuration; the external connectivity is achieved through a Gigabit and an
Infiniband network interface. The BladeCenter QS20 has impressive computational
power that, coupled with its high speed network interfaces, makes it a good
candidate for high performance cluster computing. At almost the same period
(November 11th), Sony released the PlayStation 3 (PS3) gaming console. Even
if this console is not meant for high performance computing, it is still equipped
with a (stripped down) Cell processor and its price ( $600) definitely makes
it an attractive solution for building a Cell-based cluster. This document aims
at evaluating the performance and the limitations of the PS3 platform for high
performance cluster computing.