Cray XMT
Encyclopedia
The Cray
XMT (codenamed Eldorado) is the third generation of the Cray MTA
supercomputer
architecture originally developed by Tera
. The earlier generations were called the Cray MTA
and the Cray MTA-2
. The XMT makes the MTA's multithreaded processors, now dubbed Threadstorm, compatible with the 1207-pin Socket F
used by AMD
Opteron
processors. The Threadstorm processors are plugged into systems otherwise identical to the Cray XT4
.
The Threadstorm processors only execute user code, on top of a simple BSD Unix-based microkernel
called MTX; system I/O
is performed by Opteron processors running Linux
. This third generation MTA system improves clock speed from 220 MHz
to 500 MHz, the maximal processor count from 256 to 8192, and maximum memory to 128 TB
.
Cray
Cray Inc. is an American supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray. Seymour Cray went on to form the spin-off Cray Computer Corporation , in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1995,...
XMT (codenamed Eldorado) is the third generation of the Cray MTA
Cray MTA-2
The Cray MTA-2 is a Shared-Memory MIMD computer marketed by Cray Inc. It is an unusual design based on the Tera computer designed by Tera Computer Company. The original Tera computer turned out to be nearly un-manufacturable due to its aggressive packaging and circuit technology...
supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
architecture originally developed by Tera
Tera Computer Company
The Tera Computer Company was a manufacturer of high-performance computing software and hardware, founded in 1987 in Washington, D.C. and moved 1988 to Seattle, Washington by James Rottsolk and Burton Smith. The company's first supercomputer product, named MTA, featured interleaved multi-threading,...
. The earlier generations were called the Cray MTA
Cray MTA
The Cray MTA, formerly known as the Tera MTA, is a supercomputer architecture based on thousands of independent threads, fine-grain communication and synchronization between threads, and latency tolerance for irregular computations....
and the Cray MTA-2
Cray MTA-2
The Cray MTA-2 is a Shared-Memory MIMD computer marketed by Cray Inc. It is an unusual design based on the Tera computer designed by Tera Computer Company. The original Tera computer turned out to be nearly un-manufacturable due to its aggressive packaging and circuit technology...
. The XMT makes the MTA's multithreaded processors, now dubbed Threadstorm, compatible with the 1207-pin Socket F
Socket F
Socket F is a CPU socket designed by AMD for its Opteron line of CPUs released on August 15, 2006. In 2010 Socket F was replaced by Socket C32 for entry-level servers and Socket G34 for high-end servers.-Technical specifications:...
used by AMD
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
Opteron
Opteron
Opteron is AMD's x86 server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture . It was released on April 22, 2003 with the SledgeHammer core and was intended to compete in the server and workstation markets, particularly in the same...
processors. The Threadstorm processors are plugged into systems otherwise identical to the Cray XT4
Cray XT4
The Cray XT4 is an updated version of the Cray XT3 supercomputer. It was released on November 18, 2006. It includes an updated version of the SeaStar interconnect router called SeaStar2, processor sockets for Socket AM2 Opteron processors, and 240-pin unbuffered DDR2 memory...
.
The Threadstorm processors only execute user code, on top of a simple BSD Unix-based microkernel
Microkernel
In computer science, a microkernel is the near-minimum amount of software that can provide the mechanisms needed to implement an operating system . These mechanisms include low-level address space management, thread management, and inter-process communication...
called MTX; system I/O
Input/output
In computing, input/output, or I/O, refers to the communication between an information processing system , and the outside world, possibly a human, or another information processing system. Inputs are the signals or data received by the system, and outputs are the signals or data sent from it...
is performed by Opteron processors running Linux
Linux
Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
. This third generation MTA system improves clock speed from 220 MHz
Frequency
Frequency is the number of occurrences of a repeating event per unit time. It is also referred to as temporal frequency.The period is the duration of one cycle in a repeating event, so the period is the reciprocal of the frequency...
to 500 MHz, the maximal processor count from 256 to 8192, and maximum memory to 128 TB
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
.