QPACE

QPACE ( QCD Parallel Computing on the Cell ) - a particularly fast and, at the same time, particularly efficient microprocessor in terms of energy consumption  - is a current project with the goal of obtaining a particularly efficient, massively parallel , scalable supercomputer that is based on applications in quantum chromodynamics or . of lattice QCD specializes. The computer has the structure of a three-dimensional torus of identical node computers. The node computers are based on the PowerXCell 8i microprocessor developed by IBM .

The node computers (4608 pieces) are all coupled to one another; namely through an FPGA ( Field Programmable Gate Array ) based on the Xilinx Virtex-5 , which is an optimized network processor that is attached to the PowerXCell 8i .

The three identical QPACE supercomputers that existed at Forschungszentrum Jülich , the University of Regensburg and the Bergische Universität Wuppertal had been at the top of the Green500 list for a year since November 2009 (this is the list of fast computers that stand out thanks to their particular energy efficiency award) and at the same time occupied ranks 110, 111 and 112 in the list of the fastest supercomputers ever, the TOP500 list .

Each of the three QPACE computers has 3.2 GHz PowerXCell 8i processors as node computers , which are housed in four so-called “ racks ”.

QPACE achieves 43 TFLOPS with an energy consumption of only 59.49 KW .

Follow-up projects

There are now two follow-up projects:

• Firstly, an iDataCool computer , which is currently (2014) particularly efficient in terms of cooling performance and at the same time achieves increased speed by using graphics processors , GPUs, instead of the usual CPUs.

The experiences made with QPACE and iDataCool were used in the development of the new IBM mainframe " SuperMUC " at the Leibniz data center in Munich; and secondly

• the QPACE II project , which is to use multi-core processors from Intel

See also

• QCDOC
• PowerPC

Web links

• High-Performance Computing Applications on Novel Architectures
• The QPACE Project (PDF; 850 kB)
• Computing Systems for Theoretical Physics (PDF; 2.5 MB)
• Network Specification and Software Data Structures for the eQPACE Architecture

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 26, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ http://7thspace.com/headlines/326460/qpace_qcd_parallel_computing_on_the_cell_was_recognized_as_the_most_energy_efficient_supercomputer_in_the_world.html
3. ↑ Annual report 2013 of the University of Regensburg , Aumüller Druck , Regensburg, ISSN  1439-6068 , page 51 ff.