Path: crabapple.srv.cs.cmu.edu!cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!das-news.harvard.edu!ogicse!usenet.coe.montana.edu!rpi!gatech!hubcap!fpst From: cliffc@fujitsu.fai.com (Clifford Chen) Newsgroups: comp.parallel Subject: Fujitsu Unvells Ultra High Speed Supercomputer Message-ID: <1992Sep10.125354.9672@hubcap.clemson.edu> Date: 10 Sep 92 02:16:36 GMT Article-I.D.: hubcap.1992Sep10.125354.9672 Sender: fpst@hubcap.clemson.edu (Steve Stevenson) Organization: Fujitsu America Inc. Lines: 160 Approved: parallel@hubcap.clemson.edu Apparently-To: uunet!comp-parallel U.S. Contact: Margaret Lasecke Fujitsu America, Inc. (408) 456-7606 FUJITSU UNVEILS NEW ULTRA HIGH SPEED PARALLEL SUPERCOMPUTER DEFINES NEW STANDARD FOR SUPERCOMPUTING (San Jose, CA September 9, 1992) -- Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has developed and will begin marketing worldwide a new supercomputer capable of delivering unprecedented peak performance of 355 gigaflops (355 billion floating point operations per second) with only 222 processors -- a single processor performance level ten times greater than any parallel system available today. The new system, called the VPP500 vector parallel processor, will be available for commercial shipment in September of 1993. Commenting on the importance of this strategic product introduction, Fujitsu's President Tadashi Sekizawa said, "the new system will allow engineers and scientists to now approach and solve some of the planet's most perplexing problems known as Grand Challenges." These include global climate model- ing to study and solve pollution and ozone depletion, developing alternative energy sources and human gene mapping to determine cures to birth defects. In addition, the system will be used to solve industrial problems such as locating oil reserves through computational analysis rather than costly "hit and miss" drilling or by pharmaceutical companies to simulate chemical reactions for new drug development on the computer, which may be too time consuming to create in the chemistry lab. He continued, "we are very proud of this achievement. We truly feel that this machine will be used as a tool to effect positive changes in mankind's surroundings." Innovative Architecture The Fujitsu VPP500 features vector processors used in a parallel configuration to achieve the optimum performance of parallel computing with the reliability and ease of programming associated with more traditional vector processing. The vector parallel processing approach used in the VPP500 Series evolved from the results of a feasibility study and joint research with a Fujitsu supercomputer user. The new system maximizes single processing unit performance, packing 1.6 gigaflops performance into each processing element (PE) used in the parallel configuration. Each PE, which is the size of a large briefcase delivers supercomputer performance in and of itself. Vital to optimal parallel processing performance is the speed at which individual processors communicate with one another. Fujitsu has designed an innovative, proprietary crossbar network. This network allows simultaneous communication to move between individual processing elements (PE) at a clip of 800 megabytes per second, making it the fastest data transfer rate between processors as compared to other parallel processing systems available today. The VPP500 features distributed global memory space to offer the user maximum system memory capacity of more than 55,000 megabytes, the highest in the industry. This allows memory space which is physically incorporated in each processing element to be used for large capacity storage as well. The net effect is that programmers can use traditional programming methods to develop high speed parallel programs easily. Price/Performance Challenges Market Leader Owing to its breakthroughs in semiconductor and system pack- aging and cooling technologies, the Fujitsu VPP500 will set new standards of price/performance. System pricing begins at approx- imately $10 million. The large scale integrated (LSI) circuits in the System mark the world's first large scale use of gallium arsenide. "Fujitsu's announcement of its new VPP500 represents a novel approach in supercomputer architectural design. The product leverages Fujitsu's impressive semiconductor packaging prowess to extend its conventional parallel/vector architecture, enabling a customer to scale up to a supercomputer system with hundreds of compact high-speed processors. If Fujitsu's price/performance claims prove out, the product could represent a significant competitive challenge to Cray Research's flagship C-90," observes Industry Analyst Gary Smaby, president of the Smaby Group. Easily Upgradable Configured from a minimum of seven to a maximum of 222 PEs, a VPP500 system can achieve processing speeds ranging from 11.2 gigaflops to 355 gigaflops. The VPP500 is the only parallel supercomputer available today to scale in increments of one processing element. VPP500 customers can gradually add computing power as their needs dictate. In addition, current users of Fujitsu's vector supercomputers, the VP2000 Series and the VPX200 Series can easily upgrade their general purpose supercomputers into an ultra-high-speed system. Software Availability The Fujitsu VPP500 overcomes what has been described as a software shortage in the parallel segment of the supercomputer industry. To run vector-based software, which includes most of today's supercomputing software, next generation parallel super- computers require laborious computer code decomposition and recomposition, if possible at all. "This new approach to supercomputing provides the benefits of conventional vector processing, which includes access to existing software assets, with the performance advantages of parallel processing," said Dr. Kenichi Miura, vice president of Fujitsu America's Computational Research Division and General Manager for Fujitsu America's Supercomputer Group. Industry expert Howard Richmond of the Gartner Group believes, "by using a small number of very powerful processors, the parallel programming model is simplified. It will be easier to decompose an application across a few hundred processors rather than several thousand." Fujitsu is the only parallel supercomputer manufacturer to offer source code compatibility with programming code written in standard Fortran 77 without a compromise in the supercomputer performance. Fortran 77 is the most commonly used supercomputing program language for scientists and engineers. Existing Fujitsu vector-based software applications can run on the VPP500 after simple recompilation. Most significant, software written in standard Fortran 77 for competitive vector supercomputers will also run on the Fujitsu VPP500 once recompiled. "The major benefit to customers is that millions of dollars of software development assets can be preserved, without substantial modification, as customers move to massively parallel processing capabilities and teraflops performance," said Thomas Miller, vice president of sales and marketing for Fujitsu America's Supercomputer Group. The operating system is based on the industry standard UNIX System V Release 4, which will accommodate a simple integration into an organization's range of workstations, mainframes and other supercomputers. Fujitsu Limited, a $25 billion company, is the world's second largest computer manufacturer and the largest in Japan. The company entered the supercomputer market in 1977 with its FACOM 230-75 APU and today offers the VP and VPX Series, a com- plete line of vector processor-based supercomputers. Today, Fujitsu ranks second worldwide in the number of supercomputer installations with more than 160 around the globe. # # # UNIX is a registered trademark of UNIX System Laboratories, Inc.