The next decade of computing
G. Taylor · AIP conference proceedings · 2012
Questions of power and power density are limiting the design of present day systems and will define how future computing systems are built and operated. The need for energy efficiency in computation will drive us towards more parallel and more heterogeneous computing systems of many forms: mixtures of large and small general purpose processor cores with special purpose computational blocks that can very efficiently solve a narrower range of problems. High performance computing has evolved from performance at any cost to the delivery of energy efficient computation. This change in direction is driven by multiple factors and will impact computing is different ways. The cost of electricity for running and cooling an HPC system is now comparable to the cost of the capital to build such a system while power density limits how tightly such systems can be packed. So how are HPC systems going to evolve over the next decade in response to these pressures?