www.hpcwire.com, Nov. 21, 2024 –
The technical sessions at past Supercomputing conferences have always been a wealth of information. SC2024 was no different – some of the industry's smartest scientists discussed technologies, disagreed on controversial topics, and moved discussions forward.
Here are observations from some of those technical sessions.
Some unexpected announcements
Intel unexpectedly unveiled its next AI chip, which is called Jaguar Shores, at a presentation to discuss Gaudi 2.
The AI chip's name just popped up on the AI chip roadmap during a presentation by Habana Labs, which is a part of Intel.
Intel didn't have a major announcement at the show. This slide somehow passed through Intel's communications team.
Also, Barcelona Supercomputing Centre announced it is committed to making RISC-V processors a part of its Marenostrum 6 supercomputer whenever it comes.
"BSC is committed to having some part of MareNostrum 6... on homegrown RISC-V processor," said Antonio J. Pena, a researcher and group manager at the supercomputing center.
It wasn't clear if the RISC-V chips would be just accelerators or the heavyweight out-of-order CPUs, but it aligns with Europe's priorities to cut proprietary chip designs from Intel and ARM.
China and the Top500
The Top500 list isn't the global phenomenon it once used to be. It is dominated by eight to ten countries, and the top three systems are installed in labs run by the U.S. Department of Energy.
China, previously an enthusiastic participant, has internalized HPC development and is disappearing from the Top500 list.
"They do have very powerful systems – follow-ons to the machines that are in the Top500, but they are unwilling to share information about those machines," said Jack Dongarra, an HPC expert.
Some scientific computing papers have specifications for those new Chinese machines, and Top500 can extrapolate peak performance. China isn't submitting HPL benchmarks.
If the country did submit HPL benchmarks, "maybe three machines in China could be in the top 10," Dongarra said.
RISC-V companies are also selling chiplets, not chips
Selling RISC-V chips has been a losing proposition for companies.
This situation has dawned on RISC-V vendors who gathered in an SC workshop to discuss the chip architecture.
Up until last year, chest-thumping RISC-V vendors were projecting their chips to almost match x86 and ARM processors in performance.
RISC-V isn't anywhere near that. Prototype servers with physical RISC-V processors perform poorly compared to comparable x86 and ARM chips.
RISC-V, with its flexibility to plug in modules as needed, lends itself well to chiplets.
Chip developers don't have to build a monolithic chip and can swap modules in and out. It can be paired with any kind of interconnect, storage, or I/O.
It's also free, and no one has to go through the ignominy of Intel and ARM not picking up their phone call.
RISC-V vendors can just sell the design and don't have to worry about manufacturing a physical chip.
Two companies, Esperanto and Tenstorrent, discussed their chiplet strategy.
Esperanto is planning chiplets for flexible configurations – "somewhat smaller chiplets but very configurable depending on the customer whether we need higher or lower performance," said company CEO David Ditzel during a presentation.
To be fair, RISC-V is still evolving and has many years to go before it becomes viable. The organization relies on RISC-V members to provide technology support.