Transcript Blue Gene Fact Sheet

BlueGene/L Facts
BlueGene/L compute ASIC
Platform
Characteristics
512-node
prototype
64 rack
BlueGene/L
Machine Peak
Performance
1.0 / 2.0
TFlops/s
180 / 360 TFlops/s
Total Memory Size
128 GByte
16 / 32 TByte
Foot Print
9 sq feet
2500 sq feet
Total Power
9 KW
1.5 MW
Compute Nodes
512 dual proc
65,536 dual proc
Clock Frequency
500 MHz
700 MHz
Networks
Torus, Tree,
Barrier
Torus, Tree,
Barrier
Torus Bandwidth
3 B/cycle
3 B/cycle
S/w component
Key feature
Compute Node
Kernel
Scalability via
simplicity and
determinism
Linux
More complete range
of OS services
Compilers: XLF,
XLC/C++
Industry standard;
automatic support
for SIMD FPU
MPI library
Based on MPICH2,
highly tuned to BG/L
Control system
Novel, databasecentric design
512-node prototype
BlueGene Molecular Dynamics Demo: The Blue Matter molecular dynamics
framework is running on a 32-node BlueGene/L system. The IBM T221 display is
updated in real-time by the simulation. Blue Matter is a modular system developed
for the BlueGene science program. The simulations are running at constant particle
number, volume, and energy (NVE).
The first simulation is a small patch of lipid bi-layer in water representing a cell
membrane. A large number of potential drug targets are membrane-bound proteins,
making lipid bi-layers and proteins in lipid bi-layers important subjects of molecular
dynamics research. Scientific simulations of membrane systems can involve tens to
hundreds of thousands of atoms, making them ideal candidates for a BlueGene/L
scale supercomputer.
The second simulation is of a small peptide in water, a beta-hairpin with 16 amino
acid residues taken from the C-terminus of Protein G. The folding of this hairpin
shares many characteristics of folding in larger proteins and has been studied
extensively. The folded system is at 500K and unfolds as the simulation proceeds.
Each molecular dynamics time-step represents femtosecond (10-15 sec), while the
folding time of the peptide chain at room temperature is measured in microseconds
(10-6 sec). Billions of time-steps are required to simulate folding even in this small
system.
The Prototype Protein Viewer (PPV; http://alphaworks.ibm.com/) component of Blue
Matter, is fed atom coordinates as they are generated by the molecular dynamics
code. The viewer shows hydrogen bonds within the peptide and lipid and also
displays derived information. Since hydrogen bonds are essential in determining the
shape and function of proteins, seeing the bonds form and break provides a
microscopic view of the folding process in action.
The BlueGene/L Supercomputer: IBM, collaborating with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, other DOE/NNSA labs, and other
partners, has developed a 512-node prototype of BlueGene/L at IBM Research in Yorktown. This prototype is ranked number 73 in the world
with a peak speed of 2 TF/s, and sustains 1.4 TF/s on the LINPACK benchmark. The full BlueGene/L Supercomputer, to be completed in early
2005, will have 65,536 compute nodes and 1,024 I/O nodes. Each I/O node, running Linux, will manage a group of 64 compute nodes.
BlueGene/L is expected to top the list of the world’s supercomputers with a peak processing speed of 180/360 TF/s and 16/32 TB of memory. It
will process data at a rate of one terabit per second. Each BlueGene/L node has dual processors, each with two floating point pipes, and is capable
of a peak speed of 2.8/5.6 GF/s. Two nodes are mounted onto a module; 16 modules fit into a chassis and 32 chassis to a rack. A total of 64 racks
will be installed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory by early 2005. In contrast to the ASCI White Computer, which has a footprint of
10,000 square feet, BlueGene/L will fit into about 2,500 square feet and use approximately 1.5 MW.