Intel’s next-gen Xeon Scalable processors poised to power select supercomputers for NNSA

Based on recent reports, silicon valley’s largest chip maker, Intel has started its work with the U.S. Department of Energy and the National Nuclear Security Administration to utilize their next-gen Xeon Scalable processors to power select supercomputers for the NNSA.

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) selected next-generation Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors (code-named “Sapphire Rapids”) to power the supercomputers used within NNSA’s Life Extension Program for mission-critical efforts in stockpile stewardship. The NNSA’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory awarded a subcontract to Dell Technologies to supply the Intel-powered computing systems that will be deployed at the NNSA’s Tri-Labs (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and Sandia National Laboratories).

Reports indicate that with this collaboration the three national laboratories will now become capable of building “more powerful, energy-efficient computing systems that will focus on performing extensive modeling and simulation capabilities in support of NNSA’s stockpile stewardship program.”

The model which Intel is aiming to create is a part of the NNSA’s Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) program that was performed at their Tri-Labs and awarded through the Commodity Technology Systems contract (CTS-2).

Reports indicate that Intel expects the initial systems to start shipping in the middle of 2022 and will move forward through 2025. These supercomputers “will replace the current ASC commodity systems that were sourced by the 2015 CTS-1 contract.” The CTS-1 contract is near completion in the next year, and the CTS-2 will offer more efficiency and computing power than its predecessor.

The computing systems being built through CTS-2 will incorporate next-generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with next-generation Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. The Xeon Scalable processors are optimized for high-performance computing workloads, with built-in acceleration for modelling and simulation, artificial intelligence, and high-performance data analytics.

About Dell’s EMC PowerEdge Servers

Dell EMC PowerEdge servers provide a scalable business architecture, intelligent automation, and integrated security for your workloads from traditional applications and virtualization to cloud-native workloads.

The Dell EMC PowerEdge difference is that we deliver the same user experience, and the same integrated management experience across all of our servers, so you have one way to patch, manage, update, refresh and retire servers across the entire data center.

PowerEdge servers also incorporate the embedded efficiencies of OpenManage systems management that enable IT pros to focus more time on strategic business objectives and spend less time on routine IT tasks. With open-standards-based, x86 platforms, the PowerEdge portfolio of the rack, tower, and modular server infrastructure can help you quickly scale from the data center to the cloud.

source