Piz Daint, named after a mountain in the Swiss Alps, currently delivers 7.8 petaflops of compute performance, or 7.8 quadrillion mathematical calculations per second. That puts it at No. 7 in the latest TOP500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers. CSCS plans to upgrade the system later this year with 4,500 Pascal-based GPUs.
Pascal is the most advanced GPU architecture ever built, delivering unmatched performance and efficiency to power the most computationally demanding applications. Pascal-based Tesla GPUs will allow researchers to solve larger, more complex problems that are currently out of reach in cosmology, materials science, seismology, climatology and a host of other fields.
Pascal GPUs feature a number of breakthrough technologies, including second-generation High Bandwidth Memory (HBM2) that delivers three times higher bandwidth than the previous generation architecture, and 16nm FinFET technology for unprecedented energy efficiency. For scientists with near infinite computing needs, Pascal GPUs deliver a giant leap in application performance and time to discovery for their scientific research.
The upgrade will enable CSCS scientists to do simulations, data analysis and visualizations faster and more efficiently. Piz Daint will be used to analyze data from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, the world's largest particle accelerator. The upgrade will also accelerate research on the Human Brain Project's High Performance Analytics and Computing Platform, which currently uses Piz Daint. The project's goal is to build neuromorphic computing systems that use the same principles of computation and cognitive architectures as the brain. The upgrade will also facilitate CSCS research in geophysics, cosmology and materials science.
"We are taking advantage of NVIDIA GPUs to significantly accelerate simulations in such diverse areas as cosmology, materials science, seismology and climatology," said Thomas Schulthess, professor of computational physics at ETH Zurich and director of the Swiss National Supercomputing Center. "Tesla accelerators represent a leap forward in computing, allowing our researchers to solve larger, more complex problems that are currently out of reach in a host of fields."
"CSCS scientists are using Piz Daint to tackle some of the most important computational challenges of our day, like modeling the human brain and uncovering new insights into the origins of the universe," said Ian Buck, vice president of Accelerated Computing at NVIDIA. "Tesla GPUs deliver a massive leap in application performance, allowing CSCS to push the limits of scientific discovery."
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Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the impact, performance, benefits and availability of NVIDIA Pascal architecture-based Tesla GPU accelerators are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners' products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including its Form 10-K for the fiscal period ended January 31, 2016. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company's website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.
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For further information, contact: George Millington NVIDIA Public Relations (408) 562-7226 gmillington@nvidia.com