RESULTS ON HPC CHALLENGE BENCHMARK TESTS
-Cray XT3, Cray XD1 designs exploit AMD Opteron(tm) processors and
HyperTransport(tm) technology to excel on benchmarks and win business-
AUSTIN, TX and SEATTLE- June 16, 2005-Two Cray supercomputer products
that masterfully leverage the AMD Opteron(tm) processor and
HyperTransport(tm) technology, the Cray XT3(tm) and Cray XD1(tm)
systems, have posted leading overall results on the HPC Challenge
benchmark tests, AMD (NYSE: AMD) and Cray (NASDAQ NM: CRAY) reported
today.
HPC Challenge results are gaining importance as customers increasingly
use them to help decide which high-performance computers to buy. For
example, CSCS, the Swiss National Supercomputing Center, relied heavily
on HPC Challenge results when it recently selected a Cray XT3 system
with 1,100 AMD Opteron processors that will be one of Europe's most
powerful supercomputers.
According to CSCS Director Marie-Christine Sawley, "We chose the HPC
Challenge benchmark suite for our recent 'Horizon' procurement because
we can measure and analyze the characteristics of a given supercomputer
architecture with it. It lowers the burden on the bidders, speeds up
your procurement project, and still allows you to gauge the effects of a
given architecture on your key user applications by mapping their
characteristic requirements onto the individual HPCC benchmark results."
In comparing customer-reported HPC Challenge results for three
large-scale systems of about the same size, an 1,100-processor Cray XT3
supercomputer had
the best scores on seven of the 10 "condensed results" tests, compared
to an SGI Altix 3700 system with 1,008 processors and an IBM Blue Gene
system with 1,024 processors. In the seven tests, the Cray XT3
typically outperformed the next-best system by a factor of two to five
times, and was up to 17 times faster than the third-ranking system.
Among 128-processor scalar systems, the Cray XD1 supercomputer
demonstrated leading results on four tests, more than any other
microprocessor-based system. The Cray XD1 system did especially well in
the random ring latency and global FFT tests.
In addition, a Cray X1E(tm) vector supercomputer with 248 multistreaming
processors was more than 10 times faster than the nearest competitor on
the important global random access test, measuring random updates of
memory.
Results cited are those posted as of June 15, 2005 on the HPC Challenge
website: http://icl.cs.utk.edu/hpcc/.
"When systems do well across the board on the HPC Challenge benchmark
tests, as Cray supercomputers do, it's clear that they were
purpose-built for high-performance computing," said Steve Scott, Cray
chief technology officer. "Many HPC systems today were designed for
other markets and do well on only one or two HPC Challenge tests. AMD
Opteron processors and HyperTransport technology provide a powerful
foundation for the direct connect, balanced system architectures of our
Cray XT3 and Cray XD1 supercomputers."
"Cray supercomputers based on AMD Opteron processors with Direct Connect
Architecture give customers remarkable performance for their money on
real-world problems," said Rich Oehler, Corporate Fellow at AMD. "AMD64
technology is being designed into many of the world's most powerful
computers, including the world's largest AMD Opteron processor-based
system, 'Red Storm,' a Cray supercomputer located at Sandia National
Laboratories, that when analyzed on real-world problems and
applications, has no match for providing architectural balance in a
high-performance system."
About the HPC Challenge Benchmark Tests
Assembled by Jack Dongarra and Piotr Luszczek of the University of
Tennessee, with collaborators from the U.S. and Europe, the HPC
Challenge benchmark suite tests multiple capabilities that can make a
major difference in the real-world performance of HPC systems. The test
suite includes High Performance Linpack, a single test primarily of
processor performance that is the basis for the semi-annual TOP500
supercomputer ranking, and substantially augments this with six
additional tests. More tests may be added over time.
"Linpack is useful, but no single test can accurately reflect the
overall performance of HPC systems," Dongarra said. "The HPC Challenge
benchmark test suite stresses not only the processors, but the memory
system and the interconnect. It is a better indicator of how an HPC
system will perform across a spectrum of real-world applications."
The new set of tests, co-sponsored by the National Science Foundation,
U.S. Department of Energy and DARPA HPCS (High Productivity Computing
Systems) program, was introduced at the SC2003 annual supercomputing
conference in November 2003.
About AMD
AMD (NYSE: AMD) designs and produces innovative microprocessors, Flash
memory devices and low-power processor solutions for the computer,
communications and consumer electronics industries. AMD is dedicated to
delivering standards-based, customer-focused solutions for technology
users, ranging from enterprises and governments to individual consumers.
For more information visit http://www.amd.com.
About Cray
As the global leader in high performance computing (HPC), Cray provides
innovative supercomputing systems that enable scientists and engineers
in government, industry and academia to meet both existing and future
computational challenges. Building on years of experience in designing,
developing, marketing and servicing the world's most advanced
supercomputers, Cray offers a comprehensive portfolio of HPC systems
that deliver unrivaled sustained performance on a wide range of
applications. Go to http://www.cray.com for more information.