Exascale Computing

By achieving processing speeds of a quintillion operations per second, this innovation solves the limitation of processing massive, complex datasets and simulations with speed and accuracy. Exascale computing offers unparalleled processing power, handling the enormous computational demands.
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Technology Life Cycle

Technology Life Cycle

Growth

Marked by a rapid increase in technology adoption and market expansion. Innovations are refined, production costs decrease, and the technology gains widespread acceptance and use.

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Technology Readiness Level (TRL)

Prototype Demonstration

Prototype is fully demonstrated in operational environment.

Technology Diffusion

Technology Diffusion

Early Adopters

Embrace new technologies soon after Innovators. They often have significant influence within their social circles and help validate the practicality of innovations.

Exascale Computing

Exascale computing, capable of performing at least one exaflop, or a quintillion operations per second, stands poised to revolutionise fields ranging from climate science to precision medicine, by enabling simulations and data analysis at scales previously unimaginable. Its emergence as a computational behemoth opens new horizons for scientific discovery, industrial innovation, and societal advancements.

By harnessing this formidable power, scientists and researchers can model climate systems with unprecedented precision, facilitating more accurate predictions of future climate patterns and the impacts of climate change. This capability is vital for developing effective strategies to mitigate these changes, thereby contributing significantly to the sustainability agenda. Furthermore, in the industrial sector, exascale computing enables the optimisation of processes for energy efficiency, reducing waste and lowering the carbon footprint of manufacturing activities.

Also known by alternative names such as exaflop computing, this technology's role extends beyond environmental sustainability. It is a cornerstone for advancing smart cities, where large-scale simulations can inform urban development, traffic management, and energy distribution, ensuring they are as efficient and effective as possible. The integration of exascale computing into healthcare through the analysis of large datasets can lead to breakthroughs in personalised medicine, ultimately elevating the standard of care and improving health outcomes.

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Sources
In 2021, Intel famously declared its goal to get to zettascale supercomputing by 2027, or scaling today’s Exascale computers by 1,000 times. Moving forward to 2023, attendees said challenges are scaling up performance even within Exaflops at the Supercomputing 2023 conference, which is being held in Denver.
Computers capable of crunching a quintillion operations per second are expanding the limits of what scientists can simulate.
The challenges to push computing to exaflop levels are difficult given desired targets for memory capacity, memory bandwidth, power efficiency, reliability, and cost. This paper presents a vision for an architecture that can be used to construct exascale systems. We describe a conceptual Exascale Node Architecture (ENA), which is the computational building block for an exascale supercomputer. The ENA consists of an Exascale Heterogeneous Processor (EHP) coupled with an advanced memory system. The EHP provides a high-performance accelerated processing unit (CPU+GPU), in-package high-bandwidth 3D memory, and aggressive use of die-stacking and chiplet technologies to meet the requirements for exascale computing in a balanced manner. We present initial experimental analysis to demonstrate the promise of our approach, and we discuss remaining open research challenges for the community.
Exascale computers — supercomputers that can perform 1018 floating point operations per second — started coming online in 2022: in the United States, Frontier launched as the first public exascale supercomputer and Aurora is due to open soon; OceanLight and Tianhe-3 are operational in China; and JUPITER is due to launch in 2023 in Europe. Supercomputers offer unprecedented opportunities for modelling complex materials. In this Viewpoint, five researchers working on different types of materials discuss the most promising directions in computational materials science.
Europe’s first exascale supercomputer could be up and running with as many as 100 projects by the second half of this year, allowing researchers to develop increasingly complex climate simulations and artificial intelligence systems.
Exascale is the next milestone in computing. It’s a higher level of computer performance that will have unprecedented impact on society and the economy.
'Exascale Computing' published in 'Encyclopedia of Parallel Computing'
Empower world-changing innovation and discovery in the Exascale era and beyond, with faster time-to-results and accelerated AI.
Exascale computing is a new level of supercomputing capable of at least one exaflop floating point calculations per second to support the expansive workloads of converged modeling, simulation, AI, and analytics.
High-end exascale supercomputer, JUPITER hosted in Germany with mid-range supercomputers DAEDALUS, LEVENTE, CASPIr and EHPCPL in Greece, Hungary, Ireland and Poland.

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