Partners in energy efficiency
AMD and Atos are joining forces in their ambition to advance environmental sustainability and compute efficiency. Our goal is to leverage the expertise that both Atos and AMD have in creating highly efficient High Performance Computing solutions to further push the limits of sustainable compute. Together, we are defining the operating framework, target segments, business objectives and resources to be implemented – with the goal of an operational Center of Excellence, named “Energy Efficient Applications,” in Q1 2023. This collaboration highlights the need for businesses to focus on solutions that are both highly performant and super-efficient. In fact, IDC claims in a recent survey that, “By 2023, 75% of enterprises will expect sustainability goals to be addressed in RFI (request for information) responses”.1
Advancing sustainability – for data center and beyond
As modern data centers strive for greater efficiency, scalability, and increased performance, AMD recognizes the importance in addressing these critical priorities. AMD’s 30x25 energy efficiency goal represents a 2.5x acceleration of the industry trends from 2015-2020 (measured by the worldwide energy consumption for these computing segments) This equates to a 97% reduction in energy use per computation from 2020-2025. AMD has a proven track-record of prioritizing and delivering on environmental sustainability initiatives and performance, backed by over 25 years of public reporting. As designers of microprocessors, AMD embraces the responsibility to help protect the planet and the opportunity to help others save energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
AMD environmental programs and initiatives extend across its value chain, including operations, supply chain manufacturing and products. The company has set ambitious goals through 2025/2030 that include bold advancements in energy efficiency for accelerated computing applications; setting a science-based GHG emissions reductions goal for its operations (aligned with a 1.5 degree Celsius scenario); and working with suppliers to increase efficient use of resources and renewable energy. AMD has received numerous sustainability recognitions including 3BL Media’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens (2021), CDP’s Supplier Engagement Leader (2021), and Newsweek’s Most Responsible Companies (2022).2
Atos also demonstrates what it takes to be a pioneer in sustainable compute – 12 years ago they initiated an ambitious environmental program that is based on policies, processes, guidelines and action plans underpinned by the Environmental Management System (EMS). They stand by their commitment to reduce their emissions by 50% between 2019 and 2025 and by 90% by 2039 at the latest (11 years before the SBTi recommendation). Atos has been organized to fully achieve the emission reductions and energy efficiency goals needed to fight climate change.
Between 2019 and 2021, the Atos Group’s GHG emissions (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) decreased by 27%, reaching 2.406 M tCO2e in absolute emissions. In 2021, Atos participated in COP26, where it presented its innovative data platforms, Terra² and MyCO2Compass, to help drive the net-zero transformation of its clients. Atos placed its first sustainability-linked bond which supports its Sustainability Performance Target (SPT) to reduce Atos’s annual GHG emissions (Scopes 1, 2 & 3) by 50% by 2025 compared to 2019. In 2021, 90% of Atos’s main sites (datacenters and offices) were ISO 14001 certified or in the process of being certified.3
Given the joint sustainability and efficiency focus, AMD and Atos clearly have synergistic views when it comes to the advancement of energy efficient computing. AMD Instinct™ accelerators power not only the most energy efficient supercomputer on the Green500 list, but also the most performant system on the Top500 list. Atos HPC systems hold 42 spots on the Green500 list.4
“Simulation (HPC, AI and quantum) plays a critical role in our society, particularly as we face the unprecedented challenges we face today such as climate change, precision medicine and pandemic response for example. This strategic partnership between AMD and the Atos CEPP (Center of Excellence in Performance Programming) represents a new milestone in our collaboration”, says Bruno Lecointe, Group VP HPC AI Quantum Business Support at Atos, “The new collaboration [between AMD and Atos] will focus on exploring customer system energy efficiency, helping to reduce cost and environmental impact while optimizing application performance on AMD technologies. This will, no doubt, play an instrumental role in the Post Exascale journey.”
All of this equates to a strong strategic partnership that will undoubtedly result in advancements in high performance compute and efficiency.
1 IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Sustainability 2022 Predictions - Oct 2021 | Doc #US48300021
2 Based on 2015-2020 industry trends in energy efficiency gains and data center energy consumption in 2025. Learn more at: https://www.amd.com/en/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability
3 https://atos.net/en/about-us/corporate-responsibility-and-sustainability/environment
4 Top500 & Green500 results as of June 2022