Godson eyes petaflops

[qwerrty]

ISSCC: China eyes petaflops, IBM hits 5 GHz
Rick Merritt
2/21/2011 7:30 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO – China gave a look at a national microprocessor design that aims to power a petaflops supercomputer in a paper at the International Solid State Circuits Conference here. At the same session, IBM described a 5.2 GHz mainframe processor, continuing the push the limits in CPU frequency.

Separately, Advanced Micro Devices gave more details of its new Bulldozer core and Intel described two server chips.

Weiwu Hu, lead designer of China's Godson processor family, described the Godson-3B which will emerge in a high-performance system from Dawning (Shenzhen) this summer. The Dawning system will use 3,000 Godson-3B chips to deliver about 300 Teraflops, Hu said. A future system aims to crack the petaflops barrier using the chip.

The eight-core 65nm processor delivers 128 GFlops at 1.05 GHz and is already in production at STMicroelectronics. The next-generation Godson-3C will be a 16-core version targeting 512 GFlops at 2 GHz operation in 28nm technology and is still two years away, said Hu.

The Godson-3B is based on a 64-bit MIPS core with 200 instructions added for x86 compatibility and integrates vector processing units. The chip was previously described at Hot Chips in August.

The chip and a related operating system make up one of 16 projects funded by China's national science and technology initiative. As such it will receive an estimated $5-10 billion over the 2006-2020 period, Hu said. Other projects include next-generation VLSI process technology, 4G networking, high res satellite system and China's space exploration program, he said.

*ttp://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4213365/ISSCC-China-eyes-petaflops-IBM-hits-5-GHz?pageNumber=0

 

[below_freezing]

This is arguably one of the most important achievements of the year.

 

[tanlixiang28776]

So 28mm technology huh. The lowest is 32mm right now isn't it?

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

This is arguably one of the most important achievements of the year.

I wonder where the trolls went though????

 

[marshall]

So 28mm technology huh. The lowest is 32mm right now isn't it?

I think 22nm is ready this year at Intel. TSMC has also been working on 28nm for about a year now and is supposed to be production ready this year. This 28nm process will be capable of producing the Godson 3C that is designed at 28nm, although it looks like STMicroelectronics has that contract but their process looks like it's moving slowly which could be the reason why the Godson 3C has been delayed by nearly a year.

 

[marshall]

The Loongson/Godson 3C, is supposed to be out by next year so perhaps the delay is related to the process technology. 28nm isn't ready yet at STMicroelectronics, China's preferred outsourcer, which suggests it's the available production facilities rather than design delays. Looks like China won't have the ability to produce the Godson 3C in the near future. It's best production facilities are just beginning to crack 40nm and 32nm looks like it will only be achieved in 2013, which means it will be outsourcing this chip for the foreseeable future.

ISSCC: China eyes petaflops, IBM hits 5 GHz
Rick Merritt
2/21/2011 7:30 PM EST

SAN FRANCISCO – China gave a look at a national microprocessor design that aims to power a petaflops supercomputer in a paper at the International Solid State Circuits Conference here. At the same session, IBM described a 5.2 GHz mainframe processor, continuing the push the limits in CPU frequency.

Separately, Advanced Micro Devices gave more details of its new Bulldozer core and Intel described two server chips.

Weiwu Hu, lead designer of China's Godson processor family, described the Godson-3B which will emerge in a high-performance system from Dawning (Shenzhen) this summer. The Dawning system will use 3,000 Godson-3B chips to deliver about 300 Teraflops, Hu said. A future system aims to crack the petaflops barrier using the chip.

The eight-core 65nm processor delivers 128 GFlops at 1.05 GHz and is already in production at STMicroelectronics. The next-generation Godson-3C will be a 16-core version targeting 512 GFlops at 2 GHz operation in 28nm technology and is still two years away, said Hu.

The Godson-3B is based on a 64-bit MIPS core with 200 instructions added for x86 compatibility and integrates vector processing units. The chip was previously described at Hot Chips in August.

The chip and a related operating system make up one of 16 projects funded by China's national science and technology initiative. As such it will receive an estimated $5-10 billion over the 2006-2020 period, Hu said. Other projects include next-generation VLSI process technology, 4G networking, high res satellite system and China's space exploration program, he said.

*ttp://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4213365/ISSCC-China-eyes-petaflops-IBM-hits-5-GHz?pageNumber=0

 

[qwerrty]

February 24, 2011
China Preps Godson Chip for Supercomputing Duty

More than any other country, China has used GPGPUs to propel its standing in the upper echelons of supercomputing. The 2.56 petaflop Tianhe-1A is now the top system in the world, and its 1.27 petaflops Nebulae machine is ranked third. Both are GPU-powered, and use NVIDIA Tesla parts, and to a lesser extent, Intel CPUs, to achieve their stratospheric performance levels.

But the Chinese don't intend to rely entirely on graphics chips or US-based chipmakers, for that matter, to build their next-generation HPC machines. At the International Solid State Circuits Conference (ISSCC) this week, Weiwu Hu, the lead designer of China's Godson processor (also known as Loongson), described his team's progress on their home-grown CPU, and talked about Godson's upcoming debut in a supercomputer to be deployed later this year.

Specifically, Hu told the processor-loving crowd at ISSCC that the new 8-core Godson-3B processor will be used to power a Dawning-built supercomputer slated to be booted up this summer. That system is expected to hit about 300 teraflops using 3,000 of the Godson chips, he said. If successful, the Chinese will have built their first truly indigenous TOP500 supercomputer.

Interestingly enough, it will also mark the return of a MIPS-based supercomputer to the TOP500. The Godson family is a 64-bit MIPS architecture (which just happens to include additional smarts for x86 compatibility). The last MIPS-based machine in the TOP500 was an SGI Origin 3000 machine, which fell off the list in 2005.

As one might expect from a MIPS architecture, the Godson delivers outstanding performance per watt numbers. The new Godson-3B achieves 128 gigaflops with a power-sipping 40 watts. The relatively slow clock speed (1.05 GHz) is the key to the low-energy use. In fact the 3.2 gigaflops/watt achieved by the Godson-3B CPU is even better than the 2.3 gigaflops/watt delivered by a Fermi Tesla device (M2050), although to be fair, the Tesla part also powers 3 GB of on-board memory and some other components. Nevertheless, the Godson-3B appears to be a very power-efficient design, and the upcoming Dawning machine could rival even Blue Gene/Q systems for performance per watt supremacy.

Hu also previewed their next-generation Godson-3C design, a 16-core processor that is expected to deliver 512 gigaflops -- four times that of its predecessor. Apparently most of the extra FLOPS were achieved courtesy of the process shrink to 28nm, allowing the engineers to crank the clock to 2 GHz and double the number of cores. The Godson-3C is slated for launch in 2013. According to Hu, Godson-3C will be used to power the Dawning 6000, a petascale supercomputer.

In the near-term, Godson is not likely to challenge x86 CPU dominance in HPC or anywhere else, but it may cut into future sales of Intel and AMD parts in Chinese-bound supercomputers, clusters, and servers. China, being the hottest economy on the planet, represents a lot of potential revenue for these companies.

Perhaps more worrisome would be if China were to export Godsons, or systems based on those chips, to other countries -- specifically other countries that US-based vendors are prohibited from exporting to. One that comes to mind is Iran, which has a nascent supercomputing infrastructure, and which is on friendly terms with China.

With that in mind, there were reports this week that Iran launched two supercomputers -- one at the Amirkabir University of Technology and the other at Isfahan University of Technology. The Amirkabir machine was said to attain a performance of 32 or 34 teraflops, depending upon which news publication you were reading. There was even one report that pegged the Amirkabir system at 89 teraflops, which would probably place it within the ranks of the TOP500 if the Iranians could be persuaded to submit a Linpack run. All of this is second-hand reporting, and given that there's not exactly a free press in Iran, none of these reports can really be trusted.

Not lost in translation is the fact that Iran is truly interested in developing its HPC infrastructure. Like most Middle Eastern countries with any money, Iran would like to use high performance computing to jump-start its science and engineering community. Iran also could use high-end machines to support its defense industry and help with its nuclear aspirations. The US, of course, would like to hinder both.

Not so China, which is highly motivated to counter-balance US and Western interests in the Middle East. So Godson, and the supercomputers China builds with them, may have more far-reaching consequences than the emergence of an indigenous HPC capability. If China starts distributing high-end computing parts hither and yon, the West's technological edge could be blunted significantly. Of course, given the recent upheaval in the Middle East, we really don't yet know where the ummm...chips may fall.

*ttp://www.hpcwire.com/blogs/China-Preps-Godson-Chip-for-Supercomputing-Duty-116884603.html
Posted by Michael Feldman - February 24 @ 5:57PM, Pacific Standard Time

 

[below_freezing]

Interesting article. Where does Iran get its chips? I know that Iran cannot manufacture them itself. Possibly diverted from TSMC or SMIC?

 

[below_freezing]

Dude, you guys cannot even fab i486. A design means naught if the EU declares a "processor embargo" on China.

But then again, at least you're ahead of the Indians, not that the 2 are even on a competing level...

Um... : : SMIC : : HOME

Says here they're at 90 nm, far above the 0.6 um of the i486...

 

[marshall]

Um... : : SMIC : : HOME

Says here they're at 90 nm, far above the 0.6 um of the i486...

SMIC is now at 40/45nm. Current R&D is researching 32nm and is projected to be ready for production in 2013.

 

[tanlixiang28776]

Um... : : SMIC : : HOME

Says here they're at 90 nm, far above the 0.6 um of the i486...

Ignore him. He has a hard on for the i486 despite its obsolescence.

 

[peaceful]

What CA can fab?

how about just shut up?

 

[marshall]

What CA can fab?

how about just shut up?

Canada doesn't need state of the art fabs. It will never be blockaded or sanctioned from pure play semiconductor foundries like TSMC, UMC, Chartered, DongBu, X-Fab, IBM, etc. That honor is reserved for China and any country not toeing the line of the Anglo-Saxon world order.

Even though China has semiconductor technology that Canada does not, it is IRRELEVANT because Canada can leverage the resources of every other member of the Anglo-Saxon world order and NEVER FEAR sanctions because we are too heavily influenced by the leaders of the world order...USA/UK, and will never step too far out of line.. China on the other hand has to be independent in every important aspect because if the SHTF, you can be sure those weaknesses will be exploited.

 

[peaceful]

Canada doesn't need state of the art fabs. It will never be blockaded or sanctioned from pure play semiconductor foundries like TSMC, UMC, Chartered, DongBu, X-Fab, IBM, etc. That honor is reserved for China and any country not toeing the line of the Anglo-Saxon world order.

Even though China has semiconductor technology that Canada does not, it is IRRELEVANT because Canada can leverage the resources of every other member of the Anglo-Saxon world order and NEVER FEAR sanctions because we are too heavily influenced by the leaders of the world order...USA/UK, and will never step too far out of line.. China on the other hand has to be independent in every important aspect because if the SHTF, you can be sure those weaknesses will be exploited.

1. In the next 2-3 decades, we will keep funding the leader of your fancy Anglo-Saxon world order, the US.

2. UK is just a piece of crap. already dead, so please don't bother to mention anymore.

 

[NaqsheYaar]

1. In the next 2-3 decades, we will keep funding the leader of your fancy Anglo-Saxon world order, the US.

2. UK is just a piece of crap. already dead, so please don't bother to mention anymore.

Though my post doesn't relate to the technical aspect of the article, but I have to just comment about this NWO stuff...
I observe that USA as we know it today, won't stay 'United' in next 1.5-2 years. When that happens, those fabrication houses would need a solid base of operations for their future businesses, and that would most probably be China or some other place. So that technology is coming to you Chinese friends, don't worry