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007-4653-001
2: System Overview
Architecture
The Origin 3900 sever is based on SGI NUMAflex architecture: the third-generation
shared-memory system architecture that is the basis of SGI HPC servers and
supercomputers. The NUMAflex architecture is specifically engineered to provide
technical professionals with superior performance and scalability in a design that is easy
to deploy, program, and manage. It has the following features:
Shared access of processors, memory, and I/O
-The NUMAflex architecture contains
two key components that enable applications to share the processors, memory, and I/O
devices: the Bedrock ASIC and the NUMAlink interconnect (see Figure 2-2).
•
Each Bedrock ASIC in the system is an 8-input by 6-output crossbar that acts as the
memory controller between processors and memory in the system for both local
and remote memory accesses.
•
The NUMAlink interconnect channels information between all the bricks in the
system to create a single contiguous system memory of up to 1 TB and enables
every processor in a system direct access to every I/O slot in the system.
Together, the Bedrock ASICs and the NUMAlink interconnect enable efficient access to
processors, local and remote memory, and I/O devices without the bottlenecks
associated with switches, backplanes, and other commodity interconnect technologies.
System scalability
- The NUMAflex architecture incorporates a low-latency,
high-bandwidth interconnect that is designed to maintain performance as it scales in the
following dimensions: computing, I/O, and memory. For example, the computing
dimension can range from 4 to 512 processors in a single system image (SSI).
Efficient resource management
--The NUMAflex architecture is designed to run complex
models, and because the entire memory space is shared, large models fit into memory
with no programming restrictions. Rather than waiting for all of the processors to
complete their assigned tasks, the system dynamically reallocates memory, resulting in
faster time to solution.
Summary of Contents for Origin 3900
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