The high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) landscapes continue to undergo significant transformation as semiconductor technology continues to evolve. Less than three years ago, we observed the deployment of the world’s first Exascale computer, Frontier. Now, in 2024, we are about to witness the release of a new exascale supercomputer, El Capitan, which is expected to perform at 2 exaflops, or more than 2 quintillion calculations per second. Advancements in semiconductor technology, HPC architectural innovations, improved parallel computing and scalability, improved energy efficiency, and advancements in software and algorithms have all played their part in enabling rapid progression in supercomputing capabilities.
The AMD journey in the HPC and AI sectors has been marked by continuous innovation and strategic partnerships. The AMD Instinct™ accelerators are a testament to this progress, offering cutting-edge architecture and technology designed specifically for deep learning, scientific research and complex computational tasks. Along with hardware innovation, the AMD ROCm™ open software stack offers an optimized suite of programming tools, models, compilers, libraries and more for AI and HPC solution development. These powerful computing solutions combined are setting new standards in memory bandwidth and processing capabilities, efficiency, and scalability, making them the go-to-choice for organizations and research institutions globally.
Key Features of AMD Instinct MI300 Accelerators:
- Exceptional Compute Performance – AMD Instinct MI300A accelerators boast the remarkable computational power of up to 61.3 TFLOPs peak theoretical double precision (FP64) HPC performance, essential for handling large-scale AI model simulations and support a broad range of precision capabilities.
- High Bandwidth Memory – Enhanced memory capabilities of 5.3 TB/s peak memory bandwith(MI300-12) facilitate quicker data processing crucial for AI and machine learning tasks.
- Energy Efficiency – AMD advanced packaging with new chiplet technologies reduces overhead to create an energy-efficient design that helps reduce operational costs. AMD EPYC™ and/or AMD Instinct accelerator systems currently power eight of the top ten most energy efficient supercomputers in the world based on the latest November 2023 Green500 list.
- Scalability – AMD Instinct accelerators are engineered to scale beyond tens of thousands to power the largest and most complex workloads today.
- Open software stack – The ROCm open software platform provides easy to deploy tools and frameworks for building custom solutions.
Notable Deployments
The diverse locations and applications of the AMD technology-powered supercomputers underline the global impact of AMD Instinct accelerators from, Europe’s LUMI aiding in health research, to Frontier’s role in climate change. AMD cornerstones the technology needed to enable the computational capabilities and possibilities of the world’s most powerful supercomputers across various sectors.
- El Capitan –Planned for launch in 2024 and expected to offer over 2 exaflops of performance, is poised to become the world’s fastest supercomputer. The outstanding performance makes it an ideal choice for predictive modeling and simulations.
- Frontier – As the world’s first Exascale computer, Frontier represents a milestone in computational science. It is designed to perform over a quintillion calculations per second, a feat made possible by the AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct accelerators. Frontier capabilities extend to a wide range of scientific areas including climate research, quantum mechanics, and pandemic response.
- Lumi – Powered by AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct accelerators, Lumi’s capabilities are pivotal for research in healthcare, climate science, and AI, and provide needed resources to a wide range of European scientists to conduct research.
- Eni’s HPC6 Supercomputer – Powered by AMD EPYC CPUs and AMD Instinct accelerators, the HPC6 will demonstrate the practical application of AMD technology in industry-specific tasks, while maintaining energy efficiency.
AMD continues to expand its footprint in the world of supercomputing, powering seven of the top 20 supercomputers, and eight of the top 10 Green supercomputers. This achievement is testament to the technological prowess of AMD in meeting the growing demands of HPC and AI workloads. As we move forward, we anticipate AMD Instinct accelerators to continue to play a pivotal role in driving forward knowledge in biology, material science, deep space, climate change, and more. Read more about AMD Instinct accelerators.
