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The Architecture of Supercomputers

Titan, a Case Study

  • 1st Edition - August 28, 1991
  • Latest edition
  • Authors: Daniel P. Siewiorek, Philip John Koopman
  • Language: English

The Architecture of Supercomputers: Titan, A Case Study describes the architecture of the first member of an entirely new computing class, the graphic supercomputing workstation… Read more

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Description

The Architecture of Supercomputers: Titan, A Case Study describes the architecture of the first member of an entirely new computing class, the graphic supercomputing workstation known as Titan. This book is divided into seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the Titan architecture, including the motivation, organization, and processes that created it. A survey of all the techniques to speed up computation is presented in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 reviews the issue of particular benchmarks and measures, while Chapter 4 analyzes a model of a concurrency hierarchy extending from the register set to the entire operating system. The architecture of Titan graphics supercomputer and its implementation are considered in Chapter 5. Chapter 6 examines the performance of Titan in terms of the various information flow data rates. The last chapter is devoted to the actual performance on benchmark kernels and how the architecture and implementation affect performance. This publication is recommended for architects and engineers designing processors and systems.

Table of contents

ForewordPrefaceChapter One Titan Architecture Overview 1.1 Visualization of Scientific Computations 1.2 System Overview 1.3 General Operation Principles 1.4 From Concept to Realization 1.5 The Next GenerationChapter Two Architectural Evolution—Issues and Solutions in High-Performance Design 2.1 In the Beginning: Uniprocessors 2.2 Memory Performance Hierarchies 2.3 Speedup through Specialization 2.4 Concurrency through Overlap of Operations 2.5 Concurrency through Replication 2.6 Vector Operations 2.7 Limits to Speedup: Amdahl's Law 2.8 SummaryChapter Three Performance and Balance 3.1 Hardware Performance Measures 3.2 Kiviat Graphs 3.3 System Performance Measures 3.4 The Importance of BalanceChapter Four Hierarchical Model of Computation 4.1 A High-Level Model of Computation 4.2 A More Detailed Model of Computation 4.3 Primitive OperationsChapter Five Titan Architecture and its Implementation 5.1 System Bus 5.2 Memory 5.3 Integer Unit 5.4 Vector Processing Unit 5.5 Graphics Processing Unit 5.6 I/O 5.7 Reliability Features 5.8 An Example of System Operation 5.9 Feature SummaryChapter Six Architectural Analysis of Titan 6.1 System Bus 6.2 Memory 6.3 Integer Unit 6.4 Vector Processing Unit 6.5 Graphics Processing Unit 6.6 I/O 6.7 Analysis of System Throughput and Plumbing DiagramChapter Seven Benchmarks and Performance Measurement 7.1 LINPACK and LAPACK 7.2 Elementary Functions 7.3 The P3 Modifications for Improved Performance 7.4 The Eleven Rules of Supercomputer DesignAppendix A The Titan Bus A.1 Introduction A.2 Write and Read Bus Transactions A.3 Other Transaction Types A.4 Error Detection and HandlingAppendix B Titan P2 Specification SummaryAppendix C Glossary of TermsReferencesIndex

Product details

  • Edition: 1
  • Latest edition
  • Published: May 10, 2014
  • Language: English

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