SX-ACE, the Brand-New Vector Supercomputer for Higher Sustained Performance II

Abstract

This paper describes an introduction of NEC’s brand-new vector supercomputer, SX-ACE. The SX-ACE, which inherits and improves the NEC’s SX vector architecture, is developed to provide superior sustained performance, especially for memory-intensive applications. For this purpose, the SX-ACE processor achieves the world’s top-class single core performance of 64 GFLOPS and the world’s leading memory bandwidth of 64 GB/s per core. Moreover, the SX-ACE system is designed to reduce power consumption to one-tenth with just one-fifth the floor space as compared to the previous SX-9 model by maintaining the same system performance. In this paper, we elaborate on the design concept, architectural overview, and implementation of the SX-ACE. We also discuss the sustained performance of the SX-ACE for several benchmark codes. The evaluation results demonstrate significantly improved sustained performance and power efficiency of the SX-ACE system in comparison with the SX-9.