ARM Reaches for Supercomputers

CUPERTINO, Calif.EEtimes, Aug. 22, 2016 – ARM has developed vector instructions to propel its 64-bit V8 architecture into high-performance computing. Fujitsu helped develop the extensions for use in a follow on to its K Computer, a Sparc-based system at Japan's Riken Institute that hit 8 petaflops in 2011 making it the most powerful system in the world at that time.

The effort catapults the ARM processor core for the first time into the realm of supercomputers, a rarified territory Intel's x86 has come to dominate. ARM hopes it can expand its presence there the way Intel did, slowly replacing homegrown processors from the likes of IBM and Cray.

ARM's strength is in its potential for relative power efficiency compared to the x86. The trait could serve supercomputer designers who can't practically deliver the massive power to drive the exascale-class systems they want to build.

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