The first teraflop high-performance computer of China "KD-90", with "Loongson 3B" eight-core processor and ultra multi-port gigabit Ethernet switch chip, was successfully developed by USTC and Shenzhen University and then passed the experts' identification organized by the Department of Science and Technology of Anhui. LU Ruqian, Academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences(CAS), led the expert group. WANG Xun, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Science and Technology, and Prof. ZHU Changfei, vice-president of USTC, attended the identification meeting.
The research team, led by Academician CHEN Guoliang, successfully developed both the teraflop high-performance computer "KD-50-I" based on "Loongson 2F" processor in December 2007 and "KD-60" based on "Loongson 3A" four-core processor in April 2010. In the same year, the "Loongson 3B" eight-core processor, for high-performance computer and high-end server application, was developed by the Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Supported by the subject " Development and Applications of High-Performance multi-core CPU" of the National Science and Technology Major Project, the research team successfully developed the teraflop high-performance computer "KD-90" with "Loongson 3B" eight-core processor after nearly a year. The identification was finished recently. It's a significant breakthrough in the localization of high-performance computer of China.
KD-90 is of single chassis and integrates ten "Loongson 3B" processors. It has a peak computing speed of a trillion calculations per second in theory. The system hardware consists of a front-end server, five compute nodes, two gigabit Ethernet switcher and monitor units. The front-end server and compute nodes are all configured with the home-grown "Loongson 3B" eight-core processors and ultra multi-port gigabit Ethernet switch chips for high-performance computing. The system software is open-source based, including "GotoBLAS 2" math function library that optimized for the architecture of "Loongson 3B" processor and specialized graphical system monitor software "KD-90 Monitor 1.0" with compatibility, usability and easy maintenance.
Compared with KD-60, the volume of KD-90 has been reduced by 80%, roughly equivalent to a home-use microwave in size. The power consumption is less than 900W, an excellently reduction by 62%. It is a remarkable realization of efficient, portable desktop application for high-performance computing. Thus, KD-90 is particularly suitable for related teaching and innovative talents training, also available for the research of large-scale scientific engineering computation and the application in military science, national security, economic construction and so on, holds out immense prospects of development.
Experts point out that KD-90 is the first teraflop high-performance computer of China with home-grown Loongson eight-core processor. It has features of high compute density, low cost, low power and less land occupation. Particularly in key technologies like programming model combine with general processors and vector co-processors and internet network that integrates generic protocol with proprietary protocol, KD-90 has already reached world-class levels. After KD-50-I and KD-60, the success of home-grown teraflop high-performance computer with "Loongson 3B" eight-core processor further enhances the capacity for independent innovation in high-performance computers, effectively promotes the application of the Loongson processor series in high-performance computing and server market.
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