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> I have some nostalgia for the past world of "supercomputers" that were actually purpose-built devices, rather than clusters of off-the-shelf hardware. From m

by qayxc 5y ago

> I have some nostalgia for the past world of "supercomputers" that were actually purpose-built devices, rather than clusters of off-the-shelf hardware. From mainframes to supercomputers, these parts are still far from off-the-shell hardware. They might use components that share a common heritage with their COTS cousins (in that they're not being developed specifically for a single supercomputer), but from CPU to interconnects you won't be able to source the components as-is new on the free market. Everything is still customised to varying degrees to meet customer specs and -pricing. Packaging and cooling has been solved, btw. and the company indeed sells a "plug-and-play" system complete with software support for relevant software packages (e.g. TensorFlow and friends).

EvanAnderson 5y ago
> They might use components that share a common heritage with their COTS cousins (in that they're not being developed specifically for a single supercomputer) That's what I'm talking about. This system isn't just new arrangement of off-the-shelf x86/x64-based CPUs or commodity GPU cores with exotic interconnects. > Packaging and cooling has been solved, btw. and the company indeed sells a "plug-and-play" system I'm aware that they have a product. My interest would be in hearing about how they solved their packaging, power, and cooling challenges. That's actually more interesting to me than the capabilities of the system to deliver neural network processing. There had to be a ton of fun engineering in figuring out how to make a system out of the raw technology.
- richk449 5y ago
  It has been covered in the popular tech press: https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/cerebrass-giant-chip-will-smash-deep-learnings-speed-barrier https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/cerebras... https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/processors/cerebras-giant-ai-chip-now-has-a-trillions-more-transistors https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/processor...

by qayxc 5y ago

EvanAnderson 5y ago

> They might use components that share a common heritage with their COTS cousins (in that they're not being developed specifically for a single supercomputer) That's what I'm talking about. This system isn't just new arrangement of off-the-shelf x86/x64-based CPUs or commodity GPU cores with exotic interconnects. > Packaging and cooling has been solved, btw. and the company indeed sells a "plug-and-play" system I'm aware that they have a product. My interest would be in hearing about how they solved their packaging, power, and cooling challenges. That's actually more interesting to me than the capabilities of the system to deliver neural network processing. There had to be a ton of fun engineering in figuring out how to make a system out of the raw technology.

richk449 5y ago
It has been covered in the popular tech press: https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/cerebrass-giant-chip-will-smash-deep-learnings-speed-barrier https://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/cerebras... https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/processors/cerebras-giant-ai-chip-now-has-a-trillions-more-transistors https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/semiconductors/processor...