(Co-)designing a European CPU for HPC/AI

NHR PerfLab Seminar talk on October 29, 2024

Speaker: Prof. Dr. Estela Suarez from SiPearl

Slides: https://hpc.fau.de/files/2024/11/2024...

Abstract:
Developing high-end processors for the HPC and AI markets is an extremely complex and high-risk endeavor, requiring both large economic investments and a wide range of complementary expertise. For the first time in more than two decades, this challenge is being tackled in Europe, with technological sovereignty as a key objective. SiPEARL’s Arm-based Rhea product line aims to deliver high application efficiency with CPUs characterized by a design balancing memory bandwidth and computing power. The development of Rhea started within the EPI project, a European funded research project with more than 30 partners, in which the Jülich Supercomputing Centre played a leading role in co-design activities.

In this talk, we will present the motivation behind and the path towards the first generation of HPC-oriented CPU designs in Europe, as well as our experience in co-design at processor level, based on gem5 simulations of the chip architecture. We will discuss examples of our gem5 studies, present the Rhea architecture, and share some of the experiences gathered in the interaction between modeling experts and chip designers.

Short bio:
Prof. Dr. Estela Suarez is Senior Principal Solution Architect at SiPearl. She took this role in September 2024, taking a sabbatical from her positions as Joint Lead of the department Novel System Architecture Design at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, and Associate Professor for High Performance Computing at the University of Bonn. Her expertise is in HPC system architecture and codesign. As leader of the DEEP project series, she has driven the development of the Modular Supercomputing Architecture, including the implementation and validation of hardware, software, and applications. In addition, she has been leading the codesign efforts within the European Processor Initiative since 2018. She holds a Master’s degree in Astrophysics from the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) and a PhD in Physics from the University of Geneva (Switzerland).

For a list of past and upcoming NHR PerfLab seminar events, see: https://hpc.fau.de/research/nhr-perfl...