Overview of the Blue Gene/L system architecture

The Blue Gene®/L computer is a massively parallel supercomputer based on IBM system-on-a-chip technology. It is designed to scale to 65,536 dual-processor nodes, with a peak performance of 360 teraflops. This paper describes the project objectives and provides an overview of the system architecture...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inIBM journal of research and development Vol. 49; no. 2-3; pp. 195 - 212
Main Authors Gara, A, Blumrich, M A, Chen, D, Chiu, G L-T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Armonk International Business Machines Corporation 01.03.2005
Subjects
Architecture
Computer architecture
Computer industry
Computer memory
Design
Microprocessors
Software
Supercomputers
Systems design
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Summary:The Blue Gene®/L computer is a massively parallel supercomputer based on IBM system-on-a-chip technology. It is designed to scale to 65,536 dual-processor nodes, with a peak performance of 360 teraflops. This paper describes the project objectives and provides an overview of the system architecture that resulted. We discuss our application-based approach and rationale for a low-power, highly integrated design. The key architectural features of Blue Gene/L are introduced in this paper: the link chip component and five Blue Gene/L networks, the PowerPC® 440 core and floating-point enhancements, the on-chip and off-chip distributed memory system, the node- and system-level design for high reliability, and the comprehensive approach to fault isolation. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
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ISSN:0018-8646
0018-8646
2151-8556
DOI:10.1147/rd.492.0195