Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE:HIT), today announced its intention to release worldwide the
enhancement model of "SR8000 Series", the "Model F1กษ, beginning from September
20th. This is an addition to the lineup of the super technical servers created by the
Information & Telecommunication Systems (President and CEO: Toshihiko Odaka).
The Model F1 provides the world's fastest processing capability(*1) of up to 6.1
teraFLOPS (TFLOPS*2). The maximum processing capability per system of the
"SR8000 Series" ranges from 32 gigaFLOPS (GFLOPS*3) to 6.1 TFLOPS, thus
providing broad scalability.
*1 As of September 16, 1999.
*2 1TFLOPS: 1,000,000,000,000 floating point operations per second.
*3 1GFLOPS: 1,000,000,000 floating point operations per second.
Toward the 21st century, the scope of application of the computer for scientific and
technical research is expanding from the fields of structural design and fluid dynamics, to
areas related to weather forecast, new materials development, molecular synthesis, oil
exploration, the life sciences, image processing and space engineering. Accordingly, to
perform the large-scale computations needed in these fields, a high-performance
computer, with a higher throughput than that of the conventional vector supercomputers
and parallel computers will be required.
On top of this, there is an increasing need to introduce compact servers that allow high-
speed processing to carry out large-scale computation for individual departments,
laboratories, and universities.
To meet these needs, we released in May 1998 our super technical server "HITACHI
SR8000 (maximum configuration of 128 nodes*4, with a maximum processing capability
of 1 TFLOPS)" with a high effective performance equal to conventional vector
supercomputers and with a high scalability equal to parallel computers. In March this year,
we also released our "SR8000 Compact Model(actually two models with a maximum
processing capability of 8 GFLOPS and 4 GFLOPS, respectively).
*4 Nodes: Independent processing units that are used to form a parallel computer.
The "Model F1" has a maximum processing capability per node of 12 GFLOPS. This is
50 percent higher than the current "SR8000" model. The number of nodes can also be
extended up to cover a maximum 512, four times as large as current systems. Thus the
world's fastest maximum processing capability of 6.1 TFLOPS is achieved. It also has
increased the maximum memory capacity per node to 16GB, and the memory capacity
per system to 8TB.
Furthermore, the "Model E1" with a maximum processing capability of 4.9 TFLOPS and
the "Model C", a compact model that has a maximum processing capability of 12
GFLOPS will be simultaneously released.
These new releases have shortened the machine cycle and improved logical structures of
the processors, inter-node network and so on. Thanks to this, the performance of the
following key features, which have been inherited from our current model, has been
improved:
- RISC microprocessor developed by Hitachi
-"Pseudo vector processing" function used for faster numerical calculation by a
microprocessor
-"Cooperative microprocessors in single address space" function for simultaneously and
quickly starting multiple microprocessors that comprise a node
- Multidimensional crossbar network used as a network topology for improving inter-
node communication.
These models will use a UNIX-based operating system "HI-UX/MPP for SR8000" for
maximizing hardware performance. They also provide an "Application Program
Development Environment" as a facility for speeding up programming.
Main areas to be utilized by the super technical servers "HITACHI SR8000 Series"
- Structural analysis
- Fluid dynamics
- Meteorological analysis
- Oil exploration
- New materials development
- Space engineering
- Medical analysis
- Nuclear power/nuclear fusion
- Image analysis
- Life science, etc.
Release date and prices
Release date
Model E1, Model F1 February, 2000
(4 nodes to 128 nodes)
Model E1, Model F1 individual quotations
(129 nodes to 512 nodes)
Model C February, 2000
Prices (excluding tax):
Model E1, Model F1 starting from approx.
9 million yen per month (rental)
Model C starting from approx.
54 million yen (purchase)
Target sales quantity
Including sales overseas, we expect to sell over 120 systems of the SR8000 Series,
including current models, over the next three years.
Trademarks
UNIX is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries, licensed
exclusively through X/Open Company Limited.
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