On the Inevitability of Integrated HPC Systems and How they will Change HPC System Operations
On the Inevitability of Integrated HPC Systems and How they will Change HPC System Operations
复制标题
论集成 HPC 系统的必然性及其将如何改变 HPC 系统运营
作者：
M. Schulz;D. Kranzlmüller;L. Schulz;C. Trinitis;Josef Weidendorfer
高性能计算(HPC)正处于其发展的拐点。通用体系结构在速度和功率/能量方面受到限制，需要开发专门的体系结构来提供更快的性能。此外，新的用户社区和工作负载的到来-包括机器学习、数据分析和量子模拟-增加了我们需要支持的应用程序特征的广度，给架构组合的复杂性带来了压力。与此同时，数据移动已被确定为能源浪费的主要罪魁祸首，促使硬件设计人员更紧密地整合不同的技术。由此产生的集成系统在功率/性能权衡方面提供了巨大的机会，但也带来了软件方面的挑战。在这份立场文件中，我们重点介绍了导致我们走向集成系统的趋势，并描述了它们相对于更简单的、单一加速设计的显著优势。此外，我们还强调了它对相应软件堆栈的影响，以及它对用户的挑战和影响。这引入了一种不同的方法来设计、编程和操作HPC系统，最终需要放弃一些长期持有的教条或对HPC系统的信仰。
High-Performance Computing (HPC) is at an inflection point in its evolution. General-purpose architectures approach limits in terms of speed and power/energy, requiring the development of specialized architectures to deliver accelerated performance. Additionally, the arrival of new user communities and workloads---including machine learning, data analytics, and quantum simulation---increases the breadth of application characteristics we need to support, putting pressure on the complexity of the architectural portfolio. At the same time, data movement has been identified as a main culprit of energy waste, pushing hardware designers towards a tighter integration of the different technologies. The resulting integrated systems offer great opportunities in terms of power/performance tradeoffs, but also lead to challenges on the software side. In this position paper, we highlight the trends leading us to integrated systems and describe their substantial advantages over simpler, single accelerated designs. Further, we highlight its impact on the corresponding software stack and its challenges and impact on the user. This introduces a different way to design, program and operate HPC systems, and ultimately the need to drop some long-held dogmas or believes in HPC systems.