TOP500: GENCI and Atos announce first supercomputer installed worldwide with next-generation AMD EPYC processors

28 Nov 2019

This article was originally published on the GENCI website at: http://www.genci.fr/en/node/1002

Supercomputer installed at CEA TGCC (Very Large Computing Centre)

SC’19, Denver; Paris, France, November 18, 2019 – GENCI (the French national high-performance computing organization) and Atos, a global leader in digital transformation, today announce that the latest extension of its Joliot-Curie supercomputer, installed by Atos and administered by the CEA teams at its TGCC (Very Large Computing Centre), and based on Atos’ record-breaking BullSequana XH2000 solution, is now live. It is the first operational supercomputer worldwide to include the AMD next-generation EPYC™ 7H12 Series Processors.

Today this extension of the Joliot-Curie supercomputer enters into the TOP100 global ranking in 59th position, with a sustained revised performance, thus far, of more than 5 PFlops, making it the first AMD EPYC™ 64-core 280W equipped supercomputer in the global ranking. The BullSequana XH2000’s DLC (Direct Liquid Cooling) system and its energy-efficient architecture were essential in ensuring that the supercomputer could reach a maximum level of performance to guarantee a committed Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) on relevant applications. This result was achieved with the technical expertise of the CEA’s Directorate of Military Applications HPC teams and Atos HPC teams.

This extension is part of the European project PPI4HPC, which aims to acquire innovative computing and storage solutions, through a joint procurement coordinated by GENCI, for leading HPC centres CEA/GENCI, CINECA (Italy), JUELICH (Germany) and BSC (Spain).

"The first simulation results which were run on this new supercomputer demonstrate the relevance and performance of the solution delivered by Atos," said Stéphane Requena, CTO of GENCI. “This solution will ensure a fast and efficient porting of scientific applications on upcoming denser architectures, while guaranteeing an optimal sustained Watt per GFlops ratio."

 “We’re really delighted to work with GENCI on this extension of the Joliot-Curie supercomputer, the first supercomputer installed and soon-to-be operational in the TOP500 with the AMD next-generation EPYC™ 7H12 Series Processors.” said Agnès Boudot, Senior Vice President, Head of HPC & Quantum at Atos.

 “AMD 2nd Gen EPYC processors are changing the rules of high-performance computing, delivering record-breaking performance and enabling more powerful supercomputing systems than ever before,” said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager of the Datacenter and Embedded Systems Group, AMD. “We are thrilled to see our latest EPYC 7H12 processor land on the Top500 list. Congratulations to Atos and GENCI on this major milestone, and we look forward to continued collaboration and innovation as we enter the exascale era.” 

 The supercomputer extension will soon be fully operational at the CEA’s TGCC (Very Large Computing Centre) in Bruyères-le-Châtel and open to science and industry researchers via call-for-proposals led by GENCI and PRACE (the European HPC research infrastructure). The Joliot-Curie will exceed a total cumulated theoretical peak performance of 22 PFlops.