Latest revision as of 20:39, 13 January 2018

ZettaScaler is a series of Japanese supercomputers using processors designed by PEZY and liquid cooling systems designed by ExaScaler.

Overview[edit]

ZettaScaler supercomputers are constructed using dense server aggregates called 'Bricks'. The system is cooled using enclosures containing a number of bricks. The cooling system is designed by ExaScaler and makes use of 3M's Fluorinert Electronic liquid which is an electrically insulating fluorocarbon-based inert liquid.

ZettaScalers use a host CPU (typically a Xeon E5) which is then used to offload work to the PEZY-SCx processors which act as GPDSP/GPGPU accelerators using OpenCL-like programming called PZCL.

Collaboration[edit]

The systems are a joint collaboration between three related start-ups:

• PEZY - Microprocessor design firm that designs the PEZY-SCx series.
• Exascaler - The firm that designs the water cooling solutions
• UltraMemory - A firm that designs TCI-based DRAM

Systems[edit]

ZettaScaler-1.x[edit]

ZettaScaler-1.x (ZS-1.x) is based on the PEZY-SC. Each node (brick) was constructed using two Xeon E5 connected using Intel's QPI along with 4 set of dual PEZY-SC chips in PCIe card slots using InfiniBand FDR HCA. The use of the general-purpose Intel chips was to reduce cost and speedup development cycle. The original ZS-1.0 used an off-the-shelf SuperMicro board in order to speed-up the development cycle. Starting with the ZS-1.4, PEZY moved to a custom "brick".

With the introduction of the ZS-1.6, PEZY redesigned the package of the PEZY-SC. The new chip, PEZY-SCnp (NP for New Package), addressed a number of issues relating to signal quality (DRAM, and PCIe frequency failure).

ZettaScaler-2.x[edit]

With the introduction of the ZettaScaler-2.x, PEZY has redesigned the Brick. PEZY moved to higher integration through advanced 3D packaging technology using ThruChip Interface (TCI) to interconnect the DRAM to the processor which uses wireless near-field inductive coupling instead of the traditional TSV. Powering the ZS-2.x computers is the PEZY-SC2 which incorporates 2,048 cores.

Module:

Brick:

On the ZS-2.x, a single module contains a beefier 48V power supply. The module is measured 160mm (W) x 100mm (D) x 28 mm (H). Each brick contains 32 modules.

16 such bricks go into a single tank.

ZettaScaler-2.2[edit]

ZS-2.2 Enclosure

The ZettaScaler-2.2 (ZS-2.2) architecture was introduced to the Top500 list in November 2017 with multiple systems being upgraded.

The highest-performing system was the Gyoukou supercomputer which officially peaked at an efficiency of 14.173 GFLOPS/W, surpassing the previous record of 14.11 held by the TSUBAME 3.0. The systems features 10,000 PEZY-SC2 chips, however in order to improve yield they each have 1,984 cores enabled instead of the expected 2,048 for a total of 19,840,000 cores. In the ZS-2.2, the SC2 chips are clocked at 700 MHz instead of their announced frequency of 1 GHz. For every eight SC2 chips, there is a single 16-core Xeon D processor for a combined total of 1250 Xeon processors and 20,000 cores. The Gyoukou ZS-2.2 has a Linpack performance of 19,135.8 TFLOPS with a theoretical peak performance of 28.192.0 PFLOPS consuming 1,350 kW. With 7,056 PEZY-SC2 chips, only 19.53 immersion tanks are filled out of the 26 tanks available, leaving a lot of room to grow. Additionally, with 19,860,000 cores (19,840,000 PEZY + 20,000 x86), the ZettaScaler-2.2 surpassed the Chinese supercomputer Sunway TaihuLight as the highest core-count supercomputer by over 3 million cores.

In addition to the Gyoukou supercomputer, three other smaller Japanese supercomputers based on the ZettaScaler-2.2 were introduced - all three beating the Gyoukou in efficiency, reaching the top three spot on the Green500 list:

References[edit]

• Some information was obtained directly from PEZY
• 3M Fluorinert Helps PEZY/ExaScaler Rise to the Top of the Green500 List