The next vector processor, the SX-6Tokyo 03 October 2001 NEC announced the latest addition to a series of evolutionary supercomputer systems, the "SX-6 Series." It has a peak vector performance of 8 Teraflop/s. The sale of the "SX-6 Series" begins today around the world. In the US, Cray will market the machine.
As a successor to "SX-5 Series," the "SX-6 Series" supercomputer inherits CMOS
technology and a shared memory architecture. It delivers much improved price
performance and conserves the surface space and power consumption by 80 percent
as a result of implementing one CPU on a single chip, in place of more than 30
LSI chips used in the conventional systems.
The machine has a peak performance of 64 Gigaflop/s and 64 Gigabytes of maximum memory per node; (a
node consists of maximum of eight CPUs). Configured with up to 128 nodes, the
"SX-6 Series" delivers 8 Teraflop/s of peak performance, up to 8 Terabytes (TB)
of total memory and 32 Terabytes/s of data transfer rate between CPU and memory.
This translates to 1.6 times higher speed of operations than "SX-5 Series".
The floor space and power consumption of the "SX-6 Series" have been reduced by
80 percent compared to the "SX-5 Series". This was achieved by implementing the
entire vector processor on a single chip, in place of more than thirty LSI chips
in conventional technology. This is realized by state-of-the-art semiconductor
design technology using 0.15 micron design rule and high-density packaging
technology.
The "SX-6 Series" offers "WebSuperComputing Environment (WSCE)" as one of its
middleware which enables the integrated operation environment realized by Web
browser, in which supercomputers, UNIX servers and personal computers can be
utilized when connected via Internet or Intranet. In this system, users can
visualize (graphic, animation, etc.) the computation results by supercomputers
on personal computers and manage computation results and graphic databases,
which leads to the improved convenience for both users and system managers.
NEC aims to achieve world wide sales of more than 200 units of the "SX-6 Series"
for the next three years including OEM sales by Cray Inc. The "SX-6 Series" will
be shipped from the end of December 2001 with the monthly rental price starting
from 2,800,000 Yen.
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