IBM makes supercomputers with Intel and Nvidia processors
By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 19 May 2010, 14:59 IST   |    1 Comments
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IBM makes supercomputers with Intel and Nvidia processors
Bangalore: IBM has announced a hybrid high performance computer that will come with a combination of Intel and Nvidia chips. The IBM iDataPlex Dx360 is powered by both Intel Xeon central processing units and Nvidia Tesla graphic processing units.It is clustered to form a supercomputer with other Dx360 M3 modular servers, reports Brooke Crothers. IBM is the first computer company to adopt Nvidia GPUs for a supercomputer. "Now customers will have access to everything IBM brings to the table in high-performance computing," said Sumit Gupta, Senior Manager, Nvidia's Tesla. Gupta explained, the CPU and GPU work in correspondence to a PC. the CPU launches the applications and gets files from the disk, while the GPU handles specialized computational tasks. So when a supercomputer takes computation-intensive tasks, a GPU can be better than a CPU. "Though this is the first time IBM has offered a high-performance computer with an Nvidia GPU, it is not the first hybrid design at IBM. Big Blue's Roadrunner supercomputer was a hybrid," said David Turek, Vice President of deep computing, IBM. "This is not the first hybrid GPU system in the world--they've been deployed for some time by other companies," he said. "But the difference is twofold. One is the passage of time, which has allowed the marketplace to mature in its perspective of GPUs--where the GPU is advantageous, where it's limited. And (two) the fact that it comes from IBM means that you have a company with some mass behind it to back up customer initiatives," Turek adds. The price of this hybrid computer has not yet been revealed but there have customers like Wall Street, oil and gas exploration, universities, and government labs.

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