Cray Delivers XMT Supercomputer Powered by Its Own 128 Thread CPUs

Noblis, an organization that provides expert technical and advisory services in systems engineering, science and tech, program management, as well as other fields, has just announced that its center for applied high performance computing has just received the addition of a new Cray XMT supercomputer.

This makes CAHPC the first facility in the United States, outside of a federal laboratory or academic facility, to house a Cray XMT supercomputer. 

When it developed the XMT system, Cray focused on delivering a scalable massively multithreaded platform with a shared memory architecture for large-scale data analysis and data mining.

As a result, the system is purpose-built for parallel applications that are dynamically changing and require random access to shared memory, which makes them inadequate for conventional HPC systems.

At the heart of the Cray XMT stands the company’s own 64-bit Threadstorm Processor working at 500 MHz that can run a massive 128 threads simultaneously and are compatible with motherboards using AMD’s Opteron 940 socket.

"The delivery of this supercomputer is the first step in the CAHPC's mission of taking HPC out of the lab and into the field to solve real problems," said Gil Miller, Noblis Vice President and Chief Technical Officer.

"The computer and its 128 processors will be used to solve complex problems requiring access to large amounts of data.

“Our next step is to benchmark the new XMT to see how it compares to other supercomputers," concluded the organization’s rep.

Noblis will use the new Cray XMT supercomputer in its possession to accelerate the development and commercialization of applications requiring graph analytics and to increase U.S. competitiveness and create sustainable high-tech jobs.

The Center will promote the development of High Performance Computing (HPC) applications and train the next generation of developers for HPC software.