Aurora ranks as world’s quickest AI supercomputer in newest TOP500 benchmark

The U.S. Power Division’s Aurora supercomputer has achieved the best rating but in a closely-watched synthetic intelligence efficiency check.

The pace analysis was carried out by the TOP500 supercomputing group, which revealed its findings at present. The group additionally examined Aurora’s efficiency throughout different workloads moreover AI purposes. It decided that the system is the second-fastest general behind Frontier, one other Power Division supercomputer. 

Aurora contains 166 refrigerator-sized cupboards that every maintain 64 compute modules (pictured). Every compute module weighs 70 kilos and contains eight Intel Corp. chips: six graphics processing models backed by a pair of central processing models. The meeting of Aurora’s {hardware} parts was accomplished final 12 months, however the supercomputer isn’t but totally operational.

TOP500 evaluated the system’s AI efficiency utilizing a benchmark generally known as HPL-MxP. It measures how supercomputers course of floating level numbers, models of information that lend themselves effectively to representing lengthy fractions and are used extensively by AI fashions. Aurora achieved 10.6 exaflops of efficiency, a brand new file, although solely 87% of its compute nodes have been energetic throughout the check.

The Power Division’s different exascale system, Frontier, got here in second with 10.2 exaflops. However it retained its high spot because the quickest supercomputer general.

TOP500’s flagship efficiency check compares supercomputers utilizing a benchmark known as HLP. It measures the evaluated techniques’ pace by analyzing how briskly they’ll remedy techniques of linear equations. Frontier achieved an HLP rating of 1.206 exaflops whereas Aurora managed 1.012 exaflops.

Each supercomputers have been constructed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. for the Power Division. However whereas Aurora makes use of Intel silicon, Frontier is powered by processors from Superior Micro Gadgets Inc. The latter system contains 74 cupboards that maintain 9,400 servers, every of which options one CPU and 4 AI accelerators.

Aurora might probably take the primary spot from Frontier on Top500’s flagship HLP rating as soon as it turns into totally operational. An Intel spokesperson informed Tom’s {Hardware} that “there’s a contractual goal quantity that’s quicker than Frontier. So, if we’re profitable in reaching that quantity, we’ll be quicker than Frontier.”

The subsequent three spots on at present’s TOP500 rating are held by the identical techniques that rounded out the highest 5 record final November, when the final spherical of benchmark checks came about. 

The world’s third-fastest supercomputer behind Frontier and Aurora is Eagle, an AI-optimized system Microsoft Corp. put in in its Azure cloud platform final 12 months. It’s powered by H100 graphics playing cards from Nvidia Corp. and Intel CPUs. The fourth spot went on to Arm-based Fugaku supercomputer, which is positioned on the Riken Middle for Computational Science in Japan, whereas Finland’s LUMI system rounded out the highest 5.

Photograph: Intel