الوضع الليلي
0
Intel, US Government Aim for Nation`s Fastest Computer Under `Project Aurora`
5:43:51 2019-03-20 1814

A US government-led group is working with chipmaker Intel and Cray to develop and build the nation's fastest computer by 2021 for conducting nuclear weapons and other research, officials said on Monday.

 

The Department of Energy and the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago said they are working on a supercomputer dubbed Aurora with Intel, the world's biggest supplier of data centre chips, and Cray, which specialises in the ultra-fast machines.

 

The $500 million (roughly Rs. 3,430 crores) contract for the project calls on the companies to deliver a computer with so-called exaflop performance - that is, being able to perform 1 quintillion - or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 - calculations per second.

 

If the project succeeds, Aurora would represent nearly an order of magnitude leap over existing machines that feature so-called petaflop performance, capable of doing 1 quadrillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000 - calculations a second.

 

It also heightens the stakes in a race in which the United States, China, the European Union, and Japan have all announced plans to build exaflop-capable supercomputers.

 

One of Aurora's primary functions would be simulating nuclear blasts, a pillar of weapons development since the ban of live detonation testings.

 

Aurora will be built with artificial intelligence capabilities for projects such as developing better battery materials and helping the Veterans Administration prevent suicides, Rick Stevens, an associate lab director with Argonne overseeing the exascale computing project, said during a news briefing.

 

The project is a win for Intel, which will supply its Xeon CPU chips and Optane memory chips for Aurora.

 

Intel has been fending off rival US chipmaker Nvidia's rise in the chip content of supercomputers as the machines take on more artificial intelligence work. Nvidia's chips are found in five of the world's current top-10 supercomputers, though the Nvidia chips are found alongside chips from its rivals, according to TOP500, which ranks the machines.

 

The world's current most powerful machine, the Summit supercomputer at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, contains chips from International Business Machines (IBM) and Nvidia.

 

The source of chips for supercomputers has become a factor in trade tensions between the United States and China. The world's third-fastest supercomputer - the Sunway TaihuLight in China - has chips developed domestically in China.

 

Chirag Dekate, an analyst with Gartner who studies the supercomputing market, said that despite the small contract size relative to Intel's overall revenue, the work done on Aurora will eventually filter down to the company's commercial customers.

 

"It's not just a jingoistic race between the US and China," Dekate said. "The innovations that Intel is developing here will percolate down to other parts of its business."

 

© Thomson Reuters 2019

Reality Of Islam

The Event of Closing the Doors

1:2:14   2026-10-13  

The Event of Mubahala

3:12:1   2026-10-11  

Proclamation of Surah al-Barāa

12:16:26   2026-10-05  

HadIth al-Manzila

1:15:53   2026-10-01  

MOST VIEWS

Importance of Media

9:3:43   2018-11-05

Illuminations

loneliness

9:39:36   2022-12-28

the effect of words

5:58:12   2021-12-18

al-hussain (peace be upon him)

10:18:1   2022-09-21

people types

1:34:8   2022-02-01

educators

9:50:37   2023-02-28

bahlool & the khalifa`s food

8:19:41   2018-06-21

prophet adam & the apple

1:16:44   2018-05-14



IMmORTAL Words
LATEST The Event of Closing the Doors No one other than you shall perform my ritual washing and shrouding The Integrated Personality Sleeping Less Than 5 Hours Was Linked to Higher Risk of 37 Diseases Scientists Uncover Two Hidden Forms of Disorder in Next-Generation Semiconductors A Giant Insect on the Brink of Extinction Is Making an Extraordinary Comeback The Event of Mubahala Preparing the Prophet (PBUH) for Burial and His Burial Paternal Friendship: The Key to Influencing Adolescents Just 1,000 More Steps a Day Linked to Better Mental Health in Teens Engineers Create Revolutionary New Sound Effect Technology Switzerlands Glaciers Lost More Than 5% of Their Ice in Just One Year