The NEC SX-7 is not the NEC SX-7Tokyo 09 October 2002 NEC has introduced a special version of the SX-6 with up to 32 CPU's connected in SMP-mode. It is called the "SX-7" which has created some confusion. Although it contains a bit of new technology, it is not in fact the full-blown follow-up to the SX-6-architecture. The SX-6 will remain the main supercomputer offering of choice from NEC for some time to come. Then it will be superceeded by a new SX-7 architecture. NEC expects the current "SX-7"-model is only of a interest for a few customers mainly in Japan.
The main feature of the intermediate "SX-7" is that upto 32 CPUs are connected to a maximum 256 Gbyte large capacity shared memory in a single-node system, and automatic parallelisation easily brings out large-scale multi-processing performance. The ultra-high data transfer speed of maximum 1130.2 Gigabytes/s between CPU and memory has also been realised. This is 4.4 times faster than the existing SX-6-models. In a 64-node multi-node system, large capacity memory of up to 16 Terabytes (TB) can be configured, and the total data transfer of maximum 72 TB/s speed between CPU and memory can be achieved. Moreover, "SX-7" achieves a maximum 18 Teraflop/s of vector performance in a multi-node system. Implemenrts a vector processor on one chip. This is realised by state-of-the-art semiconductor design technology using 0.15 micron design rule and high-density packaging technology.
The rental price of the "SX-7" is approximately 8.2 million yen and it will be shipped starting in December 2002.
Since NEC launched the SX-6 supercomputer architecture in October 2001, NEC has received over 140 orders across high-end users in the fields of meteorology/climate, aerospace, and automotive industry because of their high-sustained performance and excellent price performance. Demand for faster supercomputers with larger memory capacity has been increasing as problems to be solved have become larger and more complicated. At the same time, results of research and development are expected in a shorter time.
With the NEC SX-6 introduced just one year ago, it is a realistic to expect a complete new generation SX-architecture is still 2-3 years away.
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