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Hitachi Releases Super-Technical Server
with Performance Exceeding that of a Supercomputer
- Hitachi SR8000 targets science &
technology applications -
- Hitachi SR8000 targets science & technology applications -
Hitachi, Ltd. today announced that it has developed the super-technical server, a new high-performance RISC based system that combines the high effective performance*1 of a vector supercomputer with the high scalability of a parallel computer. The first model of the new computer, the Hitachi SR8000, will be released May 21 for the Japanese market and is intended for scientific and engineering fields of computation.The Hitachi SR8000 can be flexibly configured with from four nodes*2 up to a maximum of 128 nodes and is capable of a maximum processing capability of one tera-FLOPS*3.
In recent years, intensive, high-speed "number-crunching" is being required in an ever-broadening range of fields that include structural design, fluid dynamics, weather forecasting, new materials development, petroleum surveys, life science, image analysis, medical analysis, and aerospace engineering. This has fueled the need for high-performance computers that possess a processing capability exceeding that of a vector supercomputer or a parallel computer.
In response, Hitachi developed this new type of high-performance computer, the super-technical server, which combines the high effective performance of a vector supercomputer with the high scalability of a parallel computer. The SR8000 incorporates Hitachi 's industry-leading computer technology found in such advanced systems as the Hitachi S-3800*4 vector supercomputer, and the SR2201*5, the high-end parallel computer model for scientific and engineering calculations.
The SR8000 uses high-performance RISC microprocessors developed by Hitachi to achieve its world-leading processing performance of one tera-FLOPS. Performance is further boosted by the incorporation of the "pseudo-vector processing" function used in the SR2201 to speed up numerical computations, and by the use of a newly-developed "cooperative microprocessors in single address space" function. The "pseudo-vector processi" function provides high-speed transfer to the processor of large data sets held in memory, while the "cooperative microprocessors in single address space" function realizes the high-speed simultaneous activation of all microprocessors in a node.
The SR8000 uses HI-UX/MPP, a newly-developed UNIX-based 64-bit operating system.
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 1996 (ending March 31, 1997) consolidated sales of 8,523 billion yen (68.7 billion dollars*6). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.co.jp.
*1: Effective performance: A measure of actual, rather than theoretical, program-based performance.
*2: Nodes: Independent processing units that are used to form a parallel computer.
*3: Tera-FLOPS: 1,000,000,000,000 floating point operations per second.
*4: S-3800: Released in March 1992.
*5: SR2201: Released in July 1995.
*6: At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.SR8000 Applications
Structural design
Fluid dynamics
Meteorological analysis
New materials development
Petroleum surveys
Life science
Image analysis
Medical analysis
Aerospace engineering
Nuclear/Fusion engineering
Pricing and availability
Shipping: December 1998 Pricing: Starting at around 8 million yen a month Trademarks and product names
- UNIX is a registered trademark exclusively licensed in the U.S.A. and other countries by X/Open Company Limited.
- Ethernet is a trademark of Xerox Corporation.
System Specifications
System Number of nodes 4 8 16 32 64 128 Peak performance(GFLOPS) 32 64 128 256 512 1,024 Inter-node network One-dimensional crossbar Two-dimensional crossbar Three-dimensional crossbar Transfer rate of inter-node network 1 GB/s (single direction) x 2 Maximum memory capacity (GB) 32 64 128 256 512 1,024 Maximum number of I/O interfaces 18 38 78 158 318 638 External interface Ultra SCSI, Ethernet/Fast Ethernet, ATM, HIPPI Node Peak performance 8 GFLOPS Memory capacity 2 GB/ 4 GB/ 8GB
WRITTEN BY Secretary's Office All Rights Reserved, Copyright (C) 1998, Hitachi, Ltd.
