High-Performance Computing

Texas Advanced Computing Center Plans Stampede 2 Supercomputer

• By Leila Meyer
• 06/06/16

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin will deploy a new supercomputer, called Stampede 2, to provide researchers across the United States with access to high-performance computing (HPC) capabilities.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded a $30 million grant to TACC to build the new supercomputer, which "builds on technology and expertise from the Stampede system first funded by the NSF in 2011," according to information from The University of Texas at Austin.

With a peak performance of up to 18 petaflops, Stampede 2 will double the peak performance, memory, storage capacity and bandwidth of TACC's original Stampede system. Stampede 2 includes "a mix of upcoming Intel Xeon Phi processors, codenamed 'Knights Landing,' and future-generation Intel Xeon processors, connected by Intel Omni-Path architecture," according to a news release. Upcoming 3D XPoint nonvolatile memory technology will be integrated in the final phase of deployment.

"The kind of large-scale computing and data capabilities systems like Stampede and Stampede 2 provide are crucial for innovation in almost every area of research and development, from providing insights to fundamental theory to applied work that has real near-term impacts on society," said Dan Stanzione, executive director of TACC and principal investigator of the Stampede and Stampede 2 projects, in a prepared statement. "Stampede has been used for everything from determining earthquake risks to help set building codes for homes and commercial buildings, to computing the largest mathematical proof ever constructed."

Stampede 2 vendor partners include Dell, Intel and Seagate Technology. The supercomputer will be operated by a team of cyberinfrastructure experts at TACC, UT Austin, Clemson University, Cornell University, University of Colorado Boulder, Indiana University and Ohio State University.