Cirrus Phase II: Preparing for Heterogeneity at the Exascale

EPSRC的二级高性能计算（HPC）服务提供对超级计算系统的访问，以补充国家高性能计算服务ARCHER。2016年，一个由5个二级高性能计算服务组成的全国性网络在英国建立起来。其中一个服务，Cirrus，是由爱丁堡大学的超级计算中心EPCC托管和运营的。Cirrus服务非常成功，目前有380多名活跃用户，其中50多名来自工业界。Cirrus第二阶段服务将在Cirrus服务成功的基础上，在系统中添加紧密集成的GPU加速器。GPU加速器通过加速其核心数值计算来帮助超级计算应用程序运行得更快。Cirrus Phase II将拥有144个NVIDIA V100 gpu和配套的快速存储层，用于数据密集型应用。同时包含普通cpu和GPU加速器的系统通常被称为异构系统。超级计算的下一个前沿是百亿亿次，首批百亿亿次系统将于2020年或2021年投入使用。有两种不同的技术解决方案可以提供每秒10亿亿次的计算。一种选择是CPU唯一的方法，另一种方法是CPU和GPU异构的方法。增强型的Cirrus II阶段系统将为来自英国各地的科学家提供机会，探索他们的建模和仿真应用程序如何在异构架构上运行，以及大规模提供足够性能的难度。除了探索Exascale选项外，该系统还将为人工智能培训和研究提供高性能平台。目前，人们对在科学和工业应用中使用人工智能有着极大的兴趣，而卷云二期凭借其大量的NVIDIA gpu和快速存储层将为这些应用提供一个极好的平台。

EPSRC's Tier 2 High Performance Computing (HPC) services provide access to supercomputing systems that complement the national HPC service, ARCHER. In 2016 a national network of five Tier 2 HPC services was established across the UK. One of these services, Cirrus, is hosted and operated by EPCC, the supercomputing centre at the University of Edinburgh. The Cirrus service has been very successful, currently with over 380 active users of which over 50 are from industry. The Cirrus Phase II service will build on the success of the Cirrus service by adding tightly integrated GPU accelerators to the system. GPU accelerators help supercomputing applications run faster by accelerating their core numerical calculations. Cirrus Phase II will have 144 NVIDIA V100 GPUs and an accompanying fast storage layer for data intensive applications. Systems that include both normal CPUs and GPU accelerators are often called heterogenous systems. The next frontier of supercomputing is the Exascale and the first Exascale systems will become operational in 2020 or 2021. There are two different technology solutions which can delvier an Exaflop (a billion billion calculations per second). One option is a CPU only approach the other approach is CPU and GPU heterogeneous approach. The enhanced Cirrus Phase II system will give scientists from across the UK the opportunity to explore how their modelling and simulation applications will run on a heterogeneous architecture and how difficult it is likely to be to deliver sufficient performance at scale.In addition to exploring Exascale options, the system will also provide a high performance platform for AI training and research. Currently there is enormous interest in using AI in scientific and industrial applications and Cirrus Phase II, with its large number of NVIDIA GPUs and fast storage layer will provide an excellent platform for such applications.