Russia cobbles together supercomputing platform to wean off foreign suppliers
- Reference: 1649698253
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/04/11/russia_reveal_supercomputer_to_help/
- Source link:
The new supercomputer reference system, dubbed "RSK Tornado," was developed on behalf of the Russian government by HPC system integrator RSC Group, according to an English translation of a Russian-language [2]press release published March 30.
[3]Meta says it's building world's largest AI supercomputer out of Nvidia, AMD chips
[4]All-Russian 'Elbrus' PCs and servers go on sale
[5]Russia (still) trying to weaponize Facebook for spying, Ukraine-war disinfo
[6]Russian devs plan alternative Android app store after Google Play bans paid apps
[7]Russia scrambles to bootstrap HPC clusters with native tech
RSC said it created RSK Tornado as a "unified interoperable" platform to "accelerate the pace of important substitution" for HPC systems, data processing centers and data storage systems in Russia.
In other words, the HPC system architecture is meant to help Russia quickly adjust to the fact that major chip companies such as Intel, AMD and TSMC — plus several other technology vendors, like Dell and Lenovo — [8]have suspended product shipments to the country as a result of sanctions by the US and other countries in reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
RSK Tornado supports up to 104 servers in a rack, with the idea being to support foreign x86 processors (should they come available) as well as Russia's Elbrus processors, [9]which debuted in 2015 .
[10]
The hope appears to be the ability for Russian developers to port HPC, AI and big data applications from x86 architectures to the Elbrus architecture, which, in theory, will make it easier for Russia to rely on its own supply chain and better cope with continued sanctions from abroad.
[11]
[12]
RSK Tornado systems software is RSC proprietary and is currently used to orchestrate supercomputer resources at the Interdepartmental Supercomputer Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg Polytechnic University and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research.
RSC claims to have also developed its own liquid-cooling system for supercomputers and data storage systems, the latter of which can use Elbrus CPUs too.
[13]
These capabilities, RSC claimed, have allowed it to "take leading positions in the world in terms of energy efficiency, performance and compactness." As evidence, RSC pointed to the fact that it has four supercomputers on the [14]IO 500 list , which ranks the world's fastest storage systems. ®
Bootnote
As for whether Russian entities will be happy with Elbrus-based servers is a big question, and there are already some doubts that such processors can meet the needs of highly demanding applications. In December, Russian-language site ServerNews.ru [15]reported (Tom's version [16]in English ) that SberInfra, the technology division of Russia’s biggest bank Sber, found Elbrus processors were inadequate for multiple workloads due to “insufficient memory, slow memory, few cores [and] low frequency.”
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/04/russia-mobile-clusters/
[2] https://rscgroup-ru.translate.goog/news/pavt2022/?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/25/meta_supercomputer_metaverse/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2015/05/11/allrussian_elbrus_pcs_and_servers_go_on_sale/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/04/07/russia_weaponize_facebook/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/30/sanctionfree_alternative_to_google_play/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/04/russia-mobile-clusters/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/04/russia-mobile-clusters/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2015/05/11/allrussian_elbrus_pcs_and_servers_go_on_sale/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YlSlFSpB6KLuF4ZhmpoP-gAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YlSlFSpB6KLuF4ZhmpoP-gAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YlSlFSpB6KLuF4ZhmpoP-gAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/hpc&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YlSlFSpB6KLuF4ZhmpoP-gAAAMk&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://io500.org/
[15] https://servernews.ru/1055898
[16] https://www.tomshardware.com/news/russias-biggest-bank-tests-elbrus-cpu-finds-it-unacceptable
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: The TS/SCI Stuff No One is Going to Tell You Anywhere Near the Whole Truth About.
I have been accused of information trading in the past, so I will be very brief here.
Let's say this: Ukraine has proven the weakness of Russia in several different dimensions.
If you wanto know more, stop reading the internet and join the British army.
Be a *real* mars-man, as opposed to an internet variant of such.
Re: The TS/SCI Stuff No One is Going to Tell You Anywhere Near the Whole Truth About.
With every comment, I become more and more convinced the author is Elon. Cryptic and conspiracy oriented.
Tat said, I enjoy them.One of my guilty pleasures.
unified interoperable platform to accelerate the pace of important substitution
Have we unleashed the hordes of Mckinsey on them ?
Fab plants?
I thought western companies were taking their fabrication expertise out of the CCCP, how they going to manufacture these wonder chips of theirs. Oh yeah, their mates in China and India will probably help by stumping the goods I suppose.
Re: Fab plants?
The best programmers and technicians that I have worked with for a long time are all Ukrainian, so I expect that the USSR is going to see a problem with this approach but I expect that they still have the old PDP11 clone designs in the cupboards.
Re: Fab plants?
The Moscovites had a computer design+manufacturing site for many, many years. It even has a dedicated metro station. Site could use a bit of renovation+paint, but I guess it would not be Russian if it were glitzy.
Russian intelligence lives under a bit of dust and petrol haze.
In Zelenograd, outside Moscow, they have a limited semiconductor manufacturing capability.
Next big challenge for Moscow will be to back out of the trap they have stepped into. I am sure they will find a few pretty+intelligent girls to do the trick.
If not, there is always the Surgeon General with a syringe of sedative.
Re: Fab plants?
The best that China can currently manage are 90nm lithography machines. India isn’t even that far along. Neither of them are going launch Russia into the stratospheric reaches of the top 500 supercomputer tables.
If this is as good as their military prowess ....
I'm scared.
The TS/SCI Stuff No One is Going to Tell You Anywhere Near the Whole Truth About.
Any lead in quantum disciplines will render to Russia [and similarly perceived Middle and Far Eastern neighbours] what Russia and similarly perceived Middle and Far Eastern neighbours want and deserve. Any breaking news on that pioneering front?