Microprocessor Trend Usage in HPC Systems for 2022-2023
Submitted by lev_lafayette on Sat, 04/09/2022 - 03:36Background
In 2018 Intel x86 microprocessors were particularly susceptible to the Meltdown security vulnerabilities, whereby any system that allowed out-of-order execution was potentially vulnerable to an attack where a process could read memory that it was not authorised to do so [1]. As this vulnerability did not affect AMD processors, suggestions were raised that AMD could be a more effective choice for HPC environments. In the same year, as a topic at International Supercomputing Conference, the European Processor Initiative (EPI), a program to develop processors for domestic supercomputers, based on ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) and RISC-V, "European Processor Accelerator" system-on-a-chip [2]. With the benefits of four years of hindsight, it is valuable to consider the current trends in microprocessor architecture.
A wide analysis was recently presented at HPCAsia2021 [3] that conducts a detailed analysis of the trends of the last 27 year from over 10,000 computers from the Top500, with even more detailed analysis of 28 systems from 2009 to 2019. Of particular note in this context is the steady growth in recent years of heterogeneous supercomputers i.e., systems with GPGPUs to 28% of the Top500 with an increase of 1% per annum. The authors note: "We expect this increasing trend will continue, particularly for addressing technological limitations controlling the power consumption", a claim that could certainly be justified with the use of Nvidia GPUs or Intel Xeon Phi (discontinued as of 2020) as co-processors. At the time most systems were clustered around 1 GB per core with only three contemporary systems at 2 GB per CPU core, there was a wide variation in compute performance and parallel file system storage, and an increasing use among the most powerful systems of burst buffer storage to overcome the performance gap between memory and the file system.