Intel, Argonne National Laboratory, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have unveiled the Aurora supercomputer, breaking the exascale computing barrier with speeds exceeding 1.012 exaflops, making it the world’s fastest AI-focused system.
Ogi Brkic, Intel’s VP and GM of Data Center AI Solutions, expressed the significance of Aurora surpassing Exascale, stating, “The Aurora supercomputer surpassing Exascale will allow it to pave the road to tomorrow’s discoveries.” He emphasised the vital role of supercomputers in addressing scientific challenges, from climate pattern analysis to unravelling the mysteries of the universe, with potential benefits for humanity.
Aurora’s excellence extends beyond speed, emphasising innovation and utility as an AI-centric supercomputer. It empowers researchers to leverage generative AI models, accelerating scientific discovery across various fields. Notable achievements include mapping the human brain’s 80 billion neurons, enhancing high-energy particle physics through deep learning, and expediting drug design and discovery via machine learning.
At the heart of Aurora lies the Intel Data Center GPU Max Series, leveraging the Intel Xe GPU architecture optimised for AI and high-performance computing (HPC) tasks. This foundation facilitates parallel processing capabilities crucial for handling complex neural network AI computations.
More on Intel’s Aurora
The supercomputer’s scale is impressive, comprising 166 racks, 10,624 compute blades, 21,248 Intel Xeon CPU Max Series processors, and 63,744 Intel Data Center GPU Max Series units, making it the world’s largest GPU cluster.
Intel complements Aurora’s hardware with a suite of software tools, including the Intel One API DPC++/C++ compiler, and performance libraries, enhancing developer flexibility and system scalability. Moreover, Intel expands its Tiber Developer Cloud, incorporating advanced hardware and service capabilities to support large-scale evaluation, innovation, and optimisation of AI models and workloads.
The deployment of new supercomputers integrated with Intel technologies is poised to revolutionise scientific fields. Systems like CMCC’s Cassandra will advance climate change modelling, while ENEA’s CRESCO 8 will drive breakthroughs in fusion energy, highlighting Intel’s commitment to propelling HPC and AI into new frontiers of discovery and innovation.
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