Fujitsu A64FX
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 2019 |
| Marketed by | Fujitsu |
| Designed by | Fujitsu |
| Common manufacturer | |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Technology node | 7 nm |
| Microarchitecture | In-house |
| Instruction set | ARMv8.2-A with SVE and SBSA level 3 |
| Physical specifications | |
| Cores | |
| History | |
| Predecessor | SPARC64 XIfx |
The A64FX is a 64-bit ARM architecture microprocessor designed by Fujitsu.[1][4] The processor is replacing the SPARC64 XIfx as Fujitsu's processor for supercomputer applications.[5] It powers the Fugaku supercomputer, ranked in the TOP500 as the fastest supercomputer in the world from June 2020, until falling to second place behind Frontier in June 2022.[6][4][5][7]
Design
[edit | edit source]Fujitsu collaborated with ARM to develop the processor; it is the first processor to use the ARMv8.2-A Scalable Vector Extension SIMD instruction set with 512-bit vector implementation.[4]
It has "Four-operand FMA with Prefix Instruction",[1] i.e. MOVPRFX instruction followed by 3-operand FMA operation (ARM, like RISC in general, is a 3-operand machine, with no space for four operands), which get packed into a single operation in the pipeline. For the processor the designer claim ">90% execution efficiency in (D|S|H)GEMM and INT16/8 dot product".[1]
The processor uses 32 gigabytes of HBM2 memory with a bandwidth of 1 TB per second.[4] The processor contains 16 PCI Express generation 3 lanes[1] to connect to accelerators (hypothetical e.g. GPUs and FPGAs). The processor also integrates a TofuD fabric controller with 10 ports implemented as 20 lanes of high-speed 28 Gbit/s to connect multiple nodes in a cluster.[1] The reported transistor count is about 8.8 billion.[4]
Each A64FX processor has four NUMA nodes, with each NUMA node having 12 compute cores, for a total of 48 cores per processor.[8][2][3] Each NUMA node has its own level 2 cache, HBM2 memory, and assistant cores for non-computational purposes.[8]
Fujitsu intends to produce lower specification machines with reduced assistant cores.[2][3] Reliability, availability and serviceability (RAS) capabilities are claimed, i.e. ~128,400 error checkers in total.
In June 2020 the Fugaku supercomputer using this processor reached 442 petaFLOPS and became the fastest supercomputer in the world.
Implementations
[edit | edit source]Fujitsu designed the A64FX for the Fugaku. Fugaku held the rank of the fastest supercomputer in the world by TOP500 rankings.[9] Fujitsu intends to sell smaller machines with A64FX processors.[2][3] Anandtech reported in June 2020 that the cost of a PRIMEHPC FX700 server, with two A64FX nodes, was ¥4,155,330 (c. US$39,000).[10]
Cray is developing supercomputers using the A64FX.[11][12] The Isambard 2 supercomputer is being built for a consortium in the United Kingdom, led by the University of Bristol and also including the Met Office, using the Fujitsu processors.[13][14] It is an upgrade to the Isambard supercomputer which was built with the Marvell ThunderX2, another ARM architecture microprocessor.[14]
Ookami is an open testbed system supported by NSF run by Stony Brook University and the University at Buffalo providing researchers access to A64FX processors.
See also
[edit | edit source]- Comparison of ARMv8-A cores
- ThunderX2 – another ARM architecture high performance computing microprocessor
- Huawei Kunpeng 920 – also an ARM high-performance microprocessor, but developed by the Huawei-owned HiSilicon. Only available in China.
References
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