AMD to build world’s fastest supercomputer with 1.5 exaflops of performance

AMD has been tapped to help build the world's fastest supercomputer in collaboration with Cray. The machine will be named ‘The Frontier' and will deliver more than 1.5 exaflops of processing power, faster than any other supercomputer currently around.

AMD has a history in the supercomputer market, having engaged with the US Department of Energy on projects in the past. This includes the 2005 Jaguar supercomputer and the 2011 Titan supercomputer. This time around, AMD will be working with Cray to build ‘The Frontier', which will be powered by custom AMD EPYC processors and AMD Radeon Instinct graphics- exact architectures aren't being shared at this time, but we do know that High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) will be utilised, alongside AMD's Infinity Fabric connection and a 4:1 GPU to CPU ratio.

The Frontier is being built for the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and will be delivered in 2021. The main goal is to use this to power scientific tasks, including research into artificial intelligence, simulations, physics and other data crunching jobs.

Obviously such a powerful machine is going to take up a ton of space. In total, this supercomputer will measure in at 7,300 square feet and will be capable of world leading performance. In total, $600 million will be spent on delivering this machine, all as part of the US governments investment in exascale computing.

KitGuru Says: This contract is a big win for AMD and will result in a ton of publicity that should help them land more customers looking to upgrade their data-centres in the long run. This is just the beginning of AMD's plans this year though, as we will soon be seeing the launches for Zen 2 and Navi. 

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