Frontier (supercomputer)

Frontier uses 9,472 AMD Epyc 7713 "Trento" 64 core 2 GHz CPUs (606,208 cores) and 37,888 Instinct MI250X GPUs (8,335,360 cores). They can perform double-precision operations at the same speed as single precision.{{Cite web |last=Choi |first=Charles Q. |date=June 24, 2022 |title=The Beating Heart of the World's First Exascale Supercomputer |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/frontier-exascale-supercomputer |access-date=August 14, 2022 |website=IEEE Spectrum |language=en |archive-date=August 14, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220814035711/https://spectrum.ieee.org/frontier-exascale-supercomputer |url-status=live }}

"Trento" is an optimized third-generation EPYC CPU{{Cite web |title=Crusher Quick-Start Guide — OLCF User Documentation |url=https://docs.olcf.ornl.gov/systems/crusher_quick_start_guide.html |access-date=November 8, 2022 |website=docs.olcf.ornl.gov |archive-date=November 8, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221108174555/https://docs.olcf.ornl.gov/systems/crusher_quick_start_guide.html |url-status=live }} ("Milan"), which is based on the Zen 3 microarchitecture.

It occupies 74 {{convert|19|in|cm|adj=on}} rack cabinets.{{cite web|title=FRONTIER Spec Sheet|url=https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2022/05/hewlett-packard-enterprise-ushers-in-new-era-with-worlds-first-and-fastest-exascale-supercomputer-frontier-for-the-us-department-of-energys-oak-ridge-national-laboratory.html|access-date=May 31, 2022|archive-date=May 31, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531071934/https://www.hpe.com/us/en/newsroom/press-release/2022/05/hewlett-packard-enterprise-ushers-in-new-era-with-worlds-first-and-fastest-exascale-supercomputer-frontier-for-the-us-department-of-energys-oak-ridge-national-laboratory.html|url-status=live}} Each cabinet hosts 64 blades, each consisting of 2 nodes.

Blades are interconnected by HPE Slingshot 64-port switches that provides 12.8 terabits/second of bandwidth. Groups of blades are linked in a dragonfly topology with at most three hops between any two nodes. Cabling is either optical or copper, customized to minimize cable length. Total cabling runs {{convert|145|km|abbr=on}}. Frontier is liquid-cooled by 4 350-horsepower pumps, which flow around 6,000 gallons (22,712.47 Liters) of non-pre chilled water through the system each minute, allowing 5x the density of air-cooled architectures.{{Cite web |last=Service |first=Robert F. |date=17 November 2023 |title=World's fastest supercomputers are helping to sharpen climate forecasts and design new materials |url=https://www.science.org/content/article/world-s-fastest-supercomputers-are-helping-sharpen-climate-forecasts-and-design-new |access-date=4 September 2024 |website=Science}}

Each node consists of one CPU, 4 GPUs and 4 terabytes of flash memory. Each GPU has 128 GB of RAM soldered onto it, and each CPU has 512GB of local DDR4 memory.{{cite web |title=Frontier User Guide |url=https://docs.olcf.ornl.gov/systems/frontier_user_guide.html |access-date=4 September 2024 |website=Oak Ridge National Laboratory}} Each GPU has an idle power of about 100 W and a thermal design power (TDP) of about 500 W and 560 W at peak.

Frontier has coherent interconnects between CPUs and GPUs, allowing GPU memory to be accessed coherently by code running on the Epyc CPUs.{{cite web |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-VMA-Changes-Frontier |title=AMD Preparing More Linux Code For The Frontier Supercomputer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210528004223/https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=AMD-VMA-Changes-Frontier |archive-date=May 28, 2021 |url-status=live }}

Frontier uses an internal 75 TB/s read / 35 TB/s write / 15 billion IOPS flash storage system, along with the 700 PB Orion site-wide Lustre filesystem.{{cite web |date=May 30, 2022 |title=Frontier supercomputer debuts as world's fastest, breaking exascale barrier |url=https://www.ornl.gov/news/frontier-supercomputer-debuts-worlds-fastest-breaking-exascale-barrier |publisher=Oak Ridge National Laboratory |access-date=June 17, 2022 |archive-date=June 1, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220601192559/https://www.ornl.gov/news/frontier-supercomputer-debuts-worlds-fastest-breaking-exascale-barrier |url-status=live }}

Frontier consumes around 21 megawatts (MW) (which is equivalent to the power needed for 15,000 single-family homes), compared to its predecessor Summit's 13 MW.

One of the largest challenges during development was power consumption. Existing information pointed to hundreds of thousands of GPUs being necessary to achieve 1 exaFLOP, with a total power consumption of 150-500 MW. Thus, high efficiency was a primary target of the project.

Oak Ridge partnered with HPE Cray and AMD to build the system at a cost of US$600 million. It began deployment in 2021{{cite news|title=US Closes in on Exascale: Frontier Installation Is Underway|url=https://www.hpcwire.com/2021/09/29/us-closes-in-on-exascale-frontier-installation-is-underway/|work=HPC Wire|date=September 29, 2021|access-date=January 3, 2022|archive-date=January 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103132100/https://www.hpcwire.com/2021/09/29/us-closes-in-on-exascale-frontier-installation-is-underway/|url-status=live}} and reached full capability in 2022.{{cite news|title=First Look At Oak Ridge's "Frontier" Exascaler, Contrasted To Argonne's "Aurora"|url=https://www.nextplatform.com/2021/10/04/first-look-at-oak-ridges-frontier-exascaler-contrasted-to-argonnes-aurora/|work=Next Platform|date=October 4, 2021|access-date=January 3, 2022|archive-date=January 3, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220103132052/https://www.nextplatform.com/2021/10/04/first-look-at-oak-ridges-frontier-exascaler-contrasted-to-argonnes-aurora/|url-status=live}} It clocked 1.1 exaflops Rmax in May 2022, making it the world's fastest supercomputer as measured in the June 2022 edition of the TOP500 list, replacing Fugaku.{{cite web | url=https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-takes-supercomputer-top-spot-with-first-true-exascale-machine | title=US Takes Supercomputer Top Spot with First True Exascale Machine | access-date=May 31, 2022 | archive-date=May 31, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220531040133/https://www.pcmag.com/news/us-takes-supercomputer-top-spot-with-first-true-exascale-machine?utm_source=email&utm_campaign=whatsnewnow&utm_medium=title | url-status=live }}

Upon its release, the supercomputer topped the Green500 list for most efficient supercomputer, measured at 62.68 gigaflops/watt. ORNL Director Thomas Zacharia declared, "Frontier is ushering in a new era of exascale computing to solve the world’s biggest scientific challenges." He added, "This milestone offers just a preview of Frontier’s unmatched capability as a tool for scientific discovery. It is the result of more than a decade of collaboration among the national laboratories, academia and private industry, including DOE's Exascale Computing Project, which is deploying the applications, software technologies, hardware and integration necessary to ensure impact at the exascale."

{{Reflist|refs=

{{cite news |last1=Larabel |first1=Michael |title=AMD-Powered Frontier Supercomputer Tops Top500 At 1.1 Exaflops, Tops Green500 Too |url=https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Top500-Green500-Frontier |access-date=June 1, 2022 |website=Phoronix |date=May 30, 2022 |language=en |archive-date=June 6, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220606064113/https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Top500-Green500-Frontier |url-status=live }}

}}

{{S-start}}

{{s-ach|rec}}

{{S-bef

| before = RIKEN Fugaku
0.54 exaFLOPS

}}

{{S-ttl

| title = World's most powerful supercomputer

| years = May 2022 – November 2024
1.1 exaFLOPS

}}

{{S-aft|after=El Capitan
1.7 exaFLOPS}}

{{S-end}}{{Oak Ridge National Laboratory|state=expanded}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Cray products

Category:Exascale computers

Category:GPGPU supercomputers

Category:Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Category:X86 supercomputers

Category:64-bit computers