Deep Dive
Let's take a deeper look at some key technologies. Each article provides the important background you need (and links) to explore further.
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- Written by Douglas Eadline
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From the FP64 is not as boring as it used to be department
A recent paper submitted to ArXiv by famed HPC scientist Satoshi Matsuoka, Director of the RIKEN Center for Computational Science in Kobe, Japan, has shaken the tried-and-true FP64 HPC relationship to its core. The paper is entitled: FP8 is All You Need (Part 1): Debunking Hardware FP64 as the HPC Holy Grail: A Tensor–Memory Equilibrium Model and Implementation Strategy for Ozaki Scheme II on Memory-Bound Workloads in the Post-FP64 Era.
There is quite a lot to unpack in the paper, let alone the title. Matsuoka is basically positing that FP64 (64-bit double-precision arithmetic) hardware is not the best way to perform certain HPC computations that require 64-bit precision on newer Nvidia GPUs. Instead, he demonstrates how FP8 (8-bit floating-point operations) found in abundance on modern GPUs can be combined using the Ozaki Scheme II to achieve faster computation at the same 64-bit precision. This rebuke of legacy 64-bit floating-point technology is Matsuoka's flag-in-the-sand moment, and it will have consequences throughout the HPC industry. This article attempts to summarize some of the paper's major points; however, consulting the paper provides greater breadth and support for Satoshi's arguments and predictions.
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- Written by Douglas Eadline
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Explore time-series database processing
Analyzing time-series data for the financial markets is one case where speed matters. A faster answer means beating your competition to the market. For those who use kdb+/q, you understand this need and how choosing the right tool can make a huge difference in the speed at which queries get answered. As you may have assumed, there has always been an active community of kdb+ users, but until now there has never been a place to call your own.
That situation has changed thanks to kxcommunity.com. The new Kx Community site has been made available by Kx Systems, Inc. to assist and support kdb+ users. If you land on the main page, you are just a click away from current blogs, kdb+ events, job listings, local MeetUps, a monthly update signup, free code, and a real time twitter feed with kdb+ conversations. There is plenty more and the site has loads to offer for both new and experienced kdb+ users.
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- Written by Douglas Eadline
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A Deep Dive Exploring The Portland Group's PGI Accelerator Model
The remarkable computation power of General Purpose Graphical Processing Units (GP-GPUs) has led them to steadily gain traction in High Performance Computing (HPC). But creating GP-GPU programs can require new programming methods that often introduce additional work and code revisions, or even re-writes, and frequently become an obstacle to the adoption of GP-GPU technology.
To help solve this problem The Portland Group (PGI) has introduced an elegant way to augment existing HPC applications, allowing them to run efficiently on GP-GPUs while still maintaining their original code structure using standard Fortran or C. This approach provides a rapid and low-investment method for programmers to investigate GP-GPU computing. Recently, The Portland Group announced improved versions of their compiler and development tools that further enhance the PGI Accelerator Model for GP-GPUs.
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