Tianhe Second supercomputer: Re-climbing the world's new peak

Beijing time June 17 afternoon, is held in Leipzig, Germany, 2013 International Supercomputing Conference, the world's super computer TOP500 organization officially released the 41st session of the world's super computer 500 rankings, the National Defense Science and Technology University of the Tianhe second super computer, to peak calculation speed of 549 million times per second , the continuous calculation speed of 339 million times per second, the outstanding performance of double-precision floating-point operations topped the list.

China's supercomputer has been the world's first throne for the second time after the Tianhe. Tianhe Second is now the world's fastest-running, integrated technology-leading supercomputer, China's super computer development level continues to be the world's leading ranks.

To surpass the new heights of the world

November 17, 2010, the National Defense University of Science and technology developed by the Tianhe number of 4700 trillion times per second peak speed and 2566 trillion times per second of the speed, in the world's top 500 super computer ranked first, the Chinese people for the first time to stand on the podium of the super computer World champion.

In less than 8 months, however, a Japanese supercomputer called "Beijing" squeezed Tianhe into the Champions League. After that, the United States developed a "Sequoia", "Titan" supercomputer has taken the top spot in the world, the Tianhe number slipped to 8th place.

While the outside world is still the first to win the Earth, the school's computer academy quickly made the decision to climb the new peak. The vast number of scientific research personnel struggling to tackle the breakthrough in a series of core key technologies, in May this year, the speed reached 549 million times the Tianhe second super computer presented to the world.

At the end of May this year in China hosted the "High Performance Computing International Forum", the international field of authoritative experts in the field visits Tianhe second, have given high evaluation. Jack Tangala, a professor of the world TOP500 Organization and the University of Tennessee, said: "Tianhe second and the United States ' Titan ' size is comparable to twice times the speed, the production of such a powerful system requires strong technology. "Tianhe Second is one of the best computers in the world and it has a very good performance," said Professor Sebastian Ann Schmidt of the Julich Science Center in Germany. "This is a very compact machine with a peak performance and it really is a great technological advance," said Professor Graide Bocou, of the Zhubo University in Japan who took part in the Beijing system.

Innovation drives the super count to a new level

In the school "Tianhe" building a nearly 800 square meters of the room, from 170 cabinets composed of Tianhe second neat arrangement, magnificent.

Tianhe Second Engineering Deputy Commander Linan researcher told reporters: "Tianhe second has five major characteristics: first, high performance, peak speed and continuous speed have created a new world record." Second, low energy consumption, energy efficiency of 1.9 billion times per watt, reached the world's advanced level. Three is widely used, the main scientific engineering calculation, taking into account the cloud computing. Four is easy to use, innovative development of heterogeneous integration architecture, improve software compatibility and ease of programming. Five is cost-effective. ”

Tianhe Second covers an area of 720 square meters, total memory capacity of 1400 trillion bytes, storage capacity of 12400 trillion bytes, maximum operating power consumption of 17.8 MW. Image of the approximate analogy, Tianhe second operation 1 hours, the equivalent of 1.3 billion people at the same time with a calculator for 1000 years, its total storage capacity equivalent to storage of 100,000 words per book 60 billion books. Compared to the world's first U.S. "Titan" supercomputer, the Tianhe second is twice times faster than Titan, with a density of 2.5 times times the Titan and a comparable energy efficiency. Compared with the Tianhe, which was developed by the school, Tianhe second has increased its computational performance and density by more than 10 times times, energy efficiency is twice times higher, both covers an area equal to the power consumption of the same computing task is only one-third of the Tianhe number.

Where does high performance and energy efficiency come from? Tianhe Second Engineering commander, chief designer Rio researcher said: "All stems from aiming at the international forefront of independent innovation, is independent innovation to promote China's leapfrog development."

Reporters at the scene to see, computing capacity than the Milky Way to upgrade more than 10 times times the Tianhe second, covers an area of the same. Researchers told reporters that if you can not effectively solve the problem of the volume of supercomputers, system installation and commissioning, Operation Management will become a big problem. Tianhe Second design achieved high density, high-precision structure technology, the use of multiple cabinets closed cycle of the water and wind mixing cooling scheme, effectively reducing the system volume, compared with the United States "Titan", the calculation capacity is twice times, the volume is 15% smaller than it.

Tianhe second has made a series of innovations and breakthroughs in high-speed interconnection, a new type of hierarchical accelerated storage architecture, fault-tolerant design and fault management, integrated energy efficiency control, high-density high-precision structural processes, etc.

Make Tianhe No. Second more practical and usable

"It's harder to make supercomputers," he said. "This is a general understanding of the international field of accounting." Zhu Xiao, deputy director of the Tianhe second, said: "We will not only develop the world's highest performance supercomputer, but also to develop a stable and reliable, widely used supercomputers." ”

In 2010, Tianhe A was put into use in the national Supercomputing Tianjin Center, and formed the five high Performance computing platform of Petroleum exploration, biomedicine, animation and film effect rendering, high-end equipment manufacturing and geo-information, which provided supercomputing service for more than 600 users at home and abroad successively. Has achieved a number of international advanced level of innovative results.

With the foreign supercomputer mainly for scientific engineering calculation, Tianhe second in the strengthening of scientific engineering calculation, can effectively support large data processing, high throughput and high security information services, such as many applications, make Tianhe second application surface wider, easier to use.

System fault-tolerant performance is an important index to evaluate the stability of super computer. In Tianhe No. Second, the researchers adopted a multi-level fault-tolerant design it realizes the intelligent management of super large system, can automatically monitor, detect, diagnose and isolate the malfunction of system running, compared with Tianhe one, the whole system has been improved more than 1.5 times times, and the reliability and usability have come to a new level.

According to Zhu Xiao, in recent years, the rapid growth of China's supercomputer demand for the development of China's super computer, the rapid development of applications to provide a strong impetus, while promoting scientific and technological innovation, industrial upgrading, economic and social development.

Guangzhou supercomputing Center Pilot System Technical director Louzevin researcher said, Tianhe second has a strong computing power, to 500 people of the whole genome information analysis as an example, the Hua da gene to use the original computer 1 years, the use of Tianhe second, only 3 hours. In the new car development, using traditional design means, usually through hundreds of real collision experiments, lasted more than two years to complete a new car structure design, and the use of Tianhe second to the car crash simulation and aerodynamic simulation results, only 3 to 5 times real car collision, two months to complete the task.

Innovation team chasing powerful dream

Within three years, two degrees. The school "Tianhe" high-performance Computing innovation team time and again to create a shock to the world, the people proud of the scientific and technological miracle. What's The secret? The school's Computer college Commissar Liu Congmin said: "The flag plug into the world of science and Technology Peak, is ' Tianhe people ' always chasing the surreal dream." ”

In Tianhe second, the day of tackling, every night the lights of the Tianhe building are all night long Ming. "Zhou 5 plus 2, every day white plus black", become the work of scientific research personnel normal. In order to break the stability of the expansion of the system, they often closed up their own research, painstaking study, until found a solution to the problem.

In the development of Tianhe second, whenever a technical bottleneck, we always brainstorm, set the wisdom of tackling, so many design ideas, innovative ideas can not tell exactly who belongs to, even if the results of the award, only a few people's name. In the face of honor and gain, we always forthright: "We are very proud to be involved in such a large national project." The