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Cray Craves for Adaptive Supercomputer

Adaptive Supercomputer is Cray`s new approach for reaching higher levels of performance. The Seattle-based company announced plans to develop supercomputers that integrate a range of processing technologies in a single platform. These "adaptive supercomputing" systems will be able to solve scientific and engineering problems more quickly and make programmers and end users more productive by adapting processing to the requirements of each application. Cray is looking to consolidate between fields and create a new bladed model which will include four separate specialized systems that maximize technology like vector processing and massively parallel processing. Cray is aiming for, eventually, a processor board with multiple chips to optimize different applications.

Jan Silverman, Cray`s VP of corporate strategy, believes that one solution can`t be the answer for all kind of problems. "We want the machine to adapt to different applications. Our vision is that the application will automatically break out and choose the best processor for the job. We can get five to ten and in some cases even a hundred times better performance when a processor is optimized for the application." Cray said it will continue leverage its expertise developing compilers and other software to automatically match an application to the processor blade that is best suited for it. The main reason Cray says it needs to move to a more integrated, multi-purpose approach is the increasing complexity of applications HPC systems are being used for. Weather forecasting, for example, that has to take into account changes in the ozone layer, complex land and ocean models, and other factors that require different applications. Many of those applications are best suited to distinct processors.

Cray also gave AMD`s microprocessor roadmap got a strong endorsement. Confirming an earlier announcement, Cray said it plans to collaborate with the chip maker through at least the end of this decade. Cray already offers the Cray XT3 and Cray XD1 supercomputers, based on Opteron, AMD`s server processor. AMD officials said the collaboration will further embed AMD technology in Cray`s next-generation supercomputer products in the high performance computing market. Cray also will continue to develop its X1E supercomputer based on its own custom-built vector processors. Near term Cray and AMD announced they will collaborate on Cray`s planned mid-2006 proposal for Phase 3 of the federal government`s High Productivity Computing Systems. "In the near-term, the AMD Opteron processor roadmap provides our customers a smooth upgrade path to multi-core systems," Cray President and CEO Peter Ungaro said in a statement. "Through 2010, AMD`s multi-core processor roadmap and Hyper Transport technology capabilities stand out for their ability to help meet our aggressive performance goals."