PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Blue Gene is an IBM project aimed at designing supercomputers that can reach operating speeds in the PFLOPS (petaFLOPS) range, with low power consumption.Click to add some text.
What is a super computer?
- At the frontline of current processing capacity.
- one of a kind custom design by traditional companies.
Why we need super computers?
- Problems involving quantum physics
- weather forecasting
- climate research
- molecular modeling
- physical simulations
- Also Grand challenge problems which require semi infinite computing resources.
Several elements contribute to its high level of performance
-numerous high processors for parallel processing
-Specially designed high-speed networks
Specially designed or tuned OS
Dedicated to exploring the frontiers in SC
Why the name Blue Gene?
Blue-color of IBM
Gene-The intended use of the Blue Gene clusters was for computational biology.
The first computer in the Blue Gene series, is
Blue Gene/L.
It is developed through a partnership with Lawrence LivermoreNational Laboratory (LLNL).
As of November 2006, there are 27 computers on the Top500 list using the Blue Gene/L architecture.
The project has two main goals:- to advance understanding of the biomolecular mechanisms via large-scale simulation, and- to explore novel ideas in massively parallel machine architecture and software
Blue Gene/C (Cyclops64)
Blue Gene/C (now renamed to Cyclops64) is a sister-project toBlue Gene/L.It is a massively parallel, supercomputer-on-a-chip cellular architecture.The Cyclops64 project aims to create the first
"supercomputer on a chip"
Cyclops64 exposes much of the underlying hardware to the programmer, allowing the programmer to write very high performance, finely tuned software.One negative consequence is that efficiently programmingCyclops64 is difficult..
On June 26, 2007, IBM unveiled
Blue Gene/P
, the second generation of the Blue Gene supercomputer.Designed to run continuously at 1PFLOPS (petaFLOPS), it can be configured to reach speeds in excess of 3 PFLOPS.It is at least seven times more energy efficient than any other supercomputer, accomplished by using many small, low-powerchips connected through five specialized networks.
Blue Gene/Q
The last known supercomputer design in the Blue Gene series,
Blue Gene/Q
is aimed to reach 20 Petaflops in the 2011time frame.It will continue to expand and enhance the Blue Gene/L and /P architectures with higher frequency at much improved performance per watt.
President Obama recognized IBM and its Blue Gene family of supercomputers with the National Medal of Technology and Innovation.The influence of the Blue Gene supercomputer's energy-efficient design and computing model can be seen today across the Information Technology industry.Today, 18 of the top 20 most energy efficient supercomputers in the world are built on IBM high performance computing technology.
