Atos to Use AMD Epyc 7742 CPUs

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Image: AMD

AMD is continuing to expand its presence in both the consumer and enterprise markets. Their Epyc processors are finding their way into some interesting supercomputers. The new Atos BUllSequana XH2000 will use AMD Epyc 7742 processors. The XH2000 is a weather predicting supercomputer. The Epyc 7742 is a 64c/128t that has 225w TDP.

In November AMD scored another contract with AWE or the Atomic Weapons Establishment. Those super computers are using a combination of Cray technology along with the AMD Epyc 7542 processors. The Epyc 7542 is a 32c/64t that has 225w TDP.

In October the UK Research and Innovation, UKRI, used them for the new Archer 2 supercomputer. This time around using dual AMD Epyc Rome 64 core processors. The first Archer used the Cray XC30 in 2013 and used for general research.

 

[Grimlakin]

That really isn't a surprise. Don't forget that AMD all along has been making custom chips for supercomputers to do other tasks like I/O an interneconnects and timing and everything else you can think of. The fact that they have her performance/thread per watt crown is a big deal in super computers.

The people that should be worried about this is IBM more so than Intel. Intel has been an entry in the super computer market but never really the king. IBM has been the king for a long time and if AMD can take the compute away from them.... that's huge. (Of course it's probably through a partnership with IBM but keep in mind IBM is very proud of their CPU's and their performance per watt at specific tasks. This suggests the price/performance value is such that they are loosing to customers that want both. )

**EDIT TO ADD: I should explain I worked for IBM over a decade ago doing RS/6000 hardware support and followed the super computer race then pretty closely. So some of my information may be out of date but is still largely correct considering the life cycle of these systems.