Jaguar (computer)
Encyclopedia
Jaguar is a petascale
supercomputer
built by Cray
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
(ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The massively parallel
Jaguar has a peak performance of just over 1,750 teraflops
(1.75 petaflops). It has 224,256 x86-based AMD Opteron
processor cores, and operates with a version of Linux
called the Cray Linux Environment. Jaguar is a Cray XT5
system, a development from the Cray XT4
supercomputer.
In November 2009 and June 2010, TOP500
, the semiannual list of the world's top 500 supercomputers, named Jaguar as the world's fastest computer. In late October 2010, the BBC reported that the Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-1A had taken over the top spot, achieving over 2.5 quadrillion calculations per second, thereby bumping Jaguar to second place. The November 2010 TOP500 list confirmed the new rankings.
network that links each piece to the Spider file system.
Jaguar's XT5 partition contains 18,688 compute nodes in addition to dedicated login/service nodes. Each XT5 compute node contains dual hex-core AMD Opteron 2435 (Istanbul) processors and 16 GB of memory. Jaguar's XT4 partition contains 7,832 compute nodes in addition to dedicated login/service nodes. Each XT4 compute node contains a quad-core AMD Opteron 1354 (Budapest) processor and 8 GB of memory. Total combined memory amounts to over 360 terabytes (TB).
Jaguar uses an external Lustre file system
called Spider for all file storage. The file system read/write benchmark is 240 GB/s, and provides over 10 petabytes (PB) of storage.
Hundreds of applications have been ported to run on the Cray XT series, many of which have been scaled up to run on 20,000 to 150,000 processor cores.
The petaflop Jaguar seeks to address some of the most challenging scientific problems in areas such as climate modeling, renewable energy
, materials science
, seismology
, chemistry
, astrophysics
, fusion
, and combustion. Annually, 80% of Jaguar's resources are allocated through DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE
) program, a competitively-selected, peer-reviewed process open to researchers from universities, industry, government, and non-profit organizations.
Petascale
In computing, petascale refers to a computer system capable of reaching performance in excess of one petaflop, i.e. one quadrillion floating point operations per second. The standard benchmark tool is LINPACK and Top500.org is the organisation which tracks the fastest supercomputers...
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...
built by Cray
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,...
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Oak Ridge National Laboratory is a multiprogram science and technology national laboratory managed for the United States Department of Energy by UT-Battelle. ORNL is the DOE's largest science and energy laboratory. ORNL is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, near Knoxville...
(ORNL) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. The massively parallel
Massively parallel
Massively parallel is a description which appears in computer science, life sciences, medical diagnostics, and other fields.A massively parallel computer is a distributed memory computer system which consists of many individual nodes, each of which is essentially an independent computer in itself,...
Jaguar has a peak performance of just over 1,750 teraflops
FLOPS
In computing, FLOPS is a measure of a computer's performance, especially in fields of scientific calculations that make heavy use of floating-point calculations, similar to the older, simpler, instructions per second...
(1.75 petaflops). It has 224,256 x86-based AMD 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...
processor cores, and operates with a version of 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...
called the Cray Linux Environment. Jaguar is a Cray XT5
Cray XT5
The Cray XT5 is an updated version of the Cray XT4 supercomputer, launched on November 6, 2007. It includes a faster version of the XT4's SeaStar2 interconnect router called SeaStar2+, and can be configured either with XT4 compute blades, which have four dual-core AMD Opteron processor sockets, or...
system, a development from 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...
supercomputer.
In November 2009 and June 2010, TOP500
TOP500
The TOP500 project ranks and details the 500 most powerful known computer systems in the world. The project was started in 1993 and publishes an updated list of the supercomputers twice a year...
, the semiannual list of the world's top 500 supercomputers, named Jaguar as the world's fastest computer. In late October 2010, the BBC reported that the Chinese supercomputer Tianhe-1A had taken over the top spot, achieving over 2.5 quadrillion calculations per second, thereby bumping Jaguar to second place. The November 2010 TOP500 list confirmed the new rankings.
Development
The Jaguar system has been through a series of upgrades since installation as a 25-teraflop Cray XT3 in 2005. By early 2008, Jaguar was a 263-teraflop Cray XT4. In 2008, Jaguar was expanded with the addition of a 1.4-petaflop Cray XT5. By 2009, the resulting system had over 200,000 processing cores connected internally with Cray's Seastar2+ network. The XT4 and XT5 parts of Jaguar are combined into a single system using an InfiniBandInfiniBand
InfiniBand is a switched fabric communications link used in high-performance computing and enterprise data centers. Its features include high throughput, low latency, quality of service and failover, and it is designed to be scalable...
network that links each piece to the Spider file system.
Jaguar's XT5 partition contains 18,688 compute nodes in addition to dedicated login/service nodes. Each XT5 compute node contains dual hex-core AMD Opteron 2435 (Istanbul) processors and 16 GB of memory. Jaguar's XT4 partition contains 7,832 compute nodes in addition to dedicated login/service nodes. Each XT4 compute node contains a quad-core AMD Opteron 1354 (Budapest) processor and 8 GB of memory. Total combined memory amounts to over 360 terabytes (TB).
Jaguar uses an external Lustre file system
Lustre (file system)
Lustre is a massively parallel distributed file system, generally used for large scale cluster computing. The name Lustre is a portmanteau word derived from Linux and cluster...
called Spider for all file storage. The file system read/write benchmark is 240 GB/s, and provides over 10 petabytes (PB) of storage.
Hundreds of applications have been ported to run on the Cray XT series, many of which have been scaled up to run on 20,000 to 150,000 processor cores.
The petaflop Jaguar seeks to address some of the most challenging scientific problems in areas such as climate modeling, renewable energy
Renewable energy
Renewable energy is energy which comes from natural resources such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, and geothermal heat, which are renewable . About 16% of global final energy consumption comes from renewables, with 10% coming from traditional biomass, which is mainly used for heating, and 3.4% from...
, materials science
Materials science
Materials science is an interdisciplinary field applying the properties of matter to various areas of science and engineering. This scientific field investigates the relationship between the structure of materials at atomic or molecular scales and their macroscopic properties. It incorporates...
, seismology
Seismology
Seismology is the scientific study of earthquakes and the propagation of elastic waves through the Earth or through other planet-like bodies. The field also includes studies of earthquake effects, such as tsunamis as well as diverse seismic sources such as volcanic, tectonic, oceanic,...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, astrophysics
Astrophysics
Astrophysics is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physics of the universe, including the physical properties of celestial objects, as well as their interactions and behavior...
, fusion
Nuclear fusion
Nuclear fusion is the process by which two or more atomic nuclei join together, or "fuse", to form a single heavier nucleus. This is usually accompanied by the release or absorption of large quantities of energy...
, and combustion. Annually, 80% of Jaguar's resources are allocated through DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE
INCITE
The Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment program is operated by the Argonne and Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facilities and awards sizeable allocations on some of the world's most powerful supercomputers to address grand challenges in science and engineering, such...
) program, a competitively-selected, peer-reviewed process open to researchers from universities, industry, government, and non-profit organizations.
See also
- Computer scienceComputer scienceComputer science or computing science is the study of the theoretical foundations of information and computation and of practical techniques for their implementation and application in computer systems...
- ComputingComputingComputing is usually defined as the activity of using and improving computer hardware and software. It is the computer-specific part of information technology...
External Links
- For more detailed information on Jaguar, see Jaguar: The World's Most Powerful Computer