TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The Supercomputing Research Center (SRC) of National Cheng Kung
University (NCKU) has built the world's first ever switchless cluster computing system. Known
also as the “CK-Star,” this computing system connects eight computers without switch control
and broke Intel's performance record, according to a press release by the university.
The single supercomputer, built jointly by NCKU and Gigabyte, was recorded to have
reached 3.7 teraflops (3.7 trillion floating-point operations) in terms of computing
performance.
Desginated the “GS-R22PHL,” this supercomputer is currently the highest performing single
supercomputer to date, thus setting a world record in the field of supercomputers and a new
milestone in the history of computing.
Together with computer systems provided by Acer, “CK-Star” was jointly built by NCKU SRC
Director Chi-Chuan Hwang and mainland China's National Supercomputing Center in Jinan
(NSCCJN) “Taishan Scholar” Yuefan Deng, who is also a distinguished professor at the
State University of New York (SUNY).
The GS-R22PHL single supercomputer is a joint collaboration between NCKU and Gigabyte.
Hwang added that CK-Star is the most unique switchless cluster supercomputer, compared
with traditional cluster supercomputers which require switch control systems that control
interaction between nodes.
He explained that the weakness of traditional designs is that switches will become
performance bottlenecks as the number of nodes increases.
Moreover, switches also consume large amounts of power, estimated at 50 percent of a
given system's total power consumption. These problems can be overcome with the
introduction of the CK-Star, which allows unrestricted expansion of supercomputer
architecture, said NCKU.
CK-Star also integrates the Intel --eon Phi coprocessor and has posted record-breaking
performance numbers of 80.2 percent over four nodes and 77.3 percent over eight nodes,
beating Intel's previous world record of 79.6 percent over four nodes and 76.1 percent over
eight nodes, according to the university.
“CK-Star has an innovative structure and much enhanced performance. It has overcome the
limitations of switches and solved the problem of high power dissipation through switches,”
Deng explained.
Deng added that the network topology of CK-Star can also be adjusted based on application13/12/13 NCKU, Gigabyte build world's first switchless cluster supercomputer
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requirements to achieve the desired performance, thus indicating that the high-performance,
flexible framework has opened a new route which shows high research value and commercial
potential in high-performance computing systems.
After its completion, Taiwan's first mainframe computer certification center, founded by
NCKU SRC, presented the results of its first research study, which concerns the development
and certification of the aforementioned supercomputer in alliance with Gigabyte.
Relying on Gigabyte's experience in product development and manufacturing techniques, the
GS-R22PHL single supercomputer with eight-slot universal graphics was successfully
developed.
“Before the invention of Gigabyte's GS-R22PHL, ten or more servers were required to
achieve similar computing performance,” Hwang said, noting that this invention has written a
new chapter in computing history.
He also stressed that the development of this single supercomputer with Gigabyte
strategically focused on software information and high-density computer systems and
targeted the high-performance server market due to the high market potential and value of
such computers in commercial applications.
Hwang also revealed that based on the foundations laid by these two major breakthrough
research projects, NCKU will focus on software integration and effective use of resources
together with Acer, whereas the NCKU-Gigabyte collaboration will emphasize more on
supercomputer hardware setup, design and development.