A Look at the NVIDIA Tesla-infused Titan Supercomputer

Rob Williams · 10-30-2012, 05:55 PM

This past June, IBM's Sequoia supercomputer took over the #1 spot for being the fastest in the world, but soon, the folks at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory hope to replace it. Their weapon? Titan, a supercomputer featuring 18,688 CPUs and GPUs. We take a look at why ORNL went with this design, its benefits, and of course, its capabilities.

Read through our look at the Titan supercomputer, and then discuss it here!

marfig · 10-31-2012, 10:42 AM

I confess i'm not an enthusiast for supercomputers. I'm not a pitiful person. It's just that the concept of pilling stuff on top of stuff to make it taller doesn't appeal to me. I'm more into such things as the minute developments in processor speed, hard drive seek times, energy savings or heat reduction.

That said there's two things I loved when reading this article. The Titan as an exclusive service to the scientific community, was one. Another was the seemingly higher than normal average age of those involved in its construction. Kudos to both.

Rob Williams · 10-31-2012, 02:03 PM

I'm not what I would consider a supercomputer enthusiast, but I do like to keep on top of developments a little bit to see where they're going. The amount of performance these things push is just mind-blowing, and I agree with you, the fact that not just not one organization can take advantage of Titan's power is huge.

Big Red Machine · 10-31-2012, 02:14 PM

I think everyone has forgotten to ask that most essential of questions:

Can it play Crysis?

*goes back to his hiding place...

Rob Williams · 10-31-2012, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Red Machine

I think everyone has forgotten to ask that most essential of questions:

Can it play Crysis?

*goes back to his hiding place...

If Crysis can be played through SSH, I am sure it could ;-)

10-31-2012, 10:42 AM	#2
marfig No ROM battery Join Date: May 2011 Posts: 783	I confess i'm not an enthusiast for supercomputers. I'm not a pitiful person. It's just that the concept of pilling stuff on top of stuff to make it taller doesn't appeal to me. I'm more into such things as the minute developments in processor speed, hard drive seek times, energy savings or heat reduction. That said there's two things I loved when reading this article. The Titan as an exclusive service to the scientific community, was one. Another was the seemingly higher than normal average age of those involved in its construction. Kudos to both. __________________ NOX COOLBAY Side Window Black; NOX Apex 600w Modular; ASUS P7P55D-E Socket 1156, Sata 6Gb/s & USB 3.0; Intel Quad Core i5 760 2.80 Ghz @ 3.60 Ghz, 8 Mb de cache; Gskill Ripjaws 4 Gb DDR3 1600 Mhz CL8 Dual Channel; ASUS GEFORCE GTX 560 TI DC II 1024MB GDDR5; Samsung 1 Tb 32 Mb SpinPoint F3; NEC 24x Sata black Artic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro Rev.2; 2x Samsung SyncMaster S43NW 8000:1 (1440x900) Logitech K120 Keyboard and Logitech Performance Mouse MX

10-31-2012, 02:03 PM	#3
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	I'm not what I would consider a supercomputer enthusiast, but I do like to keep on top of developments a little bit to see where they're going. The amount of performance these things push is just mind-blowing, and I agree with you, the fact that not just not one organization can take advantage of Titan's power is huge. __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.

10-31-2012, 02:14 PM	#4
Big Red Machine Hellfire and Brimstone Join Date: Jul 2012 Location: SoCal Posts: 81	I think everyone has forgotten to ask that most essential of questions: Can it play Crysis? goes back to his hiding place... __________________ PROJECT P67* Intel i5 2500K @ 4.7GHz (Koolance CPU-370si) ASUS Maximus IV Extreme P67 Rev B3 16GB (4 x 4GB) G.Skill Ripjaws DDR3 1600 Samsung 830 128GB + 2 x Seagate Momentus XT 750GB (RAID 0) Zotac nVidia GeForce GTX680 (EK FC680 full-coverage block) XSPC RX360 + 6 x AP15 Scythe Gentle Typhoons ASUS Xonar Essence STX Corsair AX750 Enermax Fulmo GT

10-30-2012, 05:55 PM	#1
Rob Williams Editor-in-Chief Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Atlantic Canada Posts: 13,231	A Look at the NVIDIA Tesla-infused Titan Supercomputer This past June, IBM's Sequoia supercomputer took over the #1 spot for being the fastest in the world, but soon, the folks at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory hope to replace it. Their weapon? Titan, a supercomputer featuring 18,688 CPUs and GPUs. We take a look at why ORNL went with this design, its benefits, and of course, its capabilities. Read through our look at the Titan supercomputer, and then discuss it here! __________________ Intel Core i7-990X EE @ 3.43GHz, GIGABYTE X58A-UD5, Kingston 12GB DDR3-1333, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 2GB Kingston HyperX 3K 240GB SSD, WD VR 1TB, WD 2TB, Seagate 2TB, LG BD-ROM, ASUS DVD-RW, Corsair 1000HX, Corsair H60 Cooler Corsair 800D, Dell 2408WFP 24", ASUS Xonar Essence STX, Gentoo (KDE 4.10, 3.7 Kernel) "Take care to get what you like, or you will be forced to like what you get!" - H.P. Baxxter <Toad772> I don't always drink alcohol, but when I do, I take it too far.