The CORAL supercomputer systems

Abstract

In 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) initiated a multiyear collaboration between Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Argonne National Laboratory, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), known as “CORAL,” the next major phase in the DoE's scientific computing roadmap. The IBM CORAL systems are based on a fundamentally new data-centric architecture, where compute power is embedded everywhere data resides, combining powerful central processing units (CPUs) with graphics processing units (GPUs) optimized for scientific computing and artificial intelligence workloads. The IBM CORAL systems were built on the combination of mature technologies: 9th-generation POWER CPU, 6th-generation NVIDIA GPU, and 5th-generation Mellanox InfiniBand. These systems are providing scientists with computing power to solve challenges in many research areas beyond previously possible. This article provides an overview of the system solutions deployed at ORNL and LLNL.