The CEO of chip giant AMD said the high-performance computing (HPC) industry must start to become much more efficient, or it will have to turn to nuclear power.
AMD CPU and GPU performance typically doubles every 2.4 years, which is good progress, but energy efficiency hasn’t seen that much of an improvement.
Speaking at the International Semiconductor Circuits Conference, Dr. Lisa Su noted that with HPC zettaflops on the horizon, we should turn our attention to efficiency per unit of energy to make zettaflop calculations a reality.
Going nuclear
On current trends, and assuming progress doesn’t slow down, AMD estimates that zettaflop computing could be available in about a decade (although Intel believes it could be about half that time).
The reality is that when they arrive is not as important as when they become available on a usable, energy efficient scale.
Currently, Su generously estimates that an HPC capable of achieving performance measurable in zettaflops would use 500 MW of power, the equivalent of several thousand homes. To provide such power consistently and reliably, a nuclear reactor would probably be needed.
While there have been noticeable improvements in performance over the past decades, progress is beginning to slow as the room for further improvements shrinks.
“This efficiency flattening is becoming the biggest challenge we need to address, both from a technology and sustainability point of view,” said Su.
She explained that computational efficiency should become the number one priority to solve the problem. While our current measures have slowed down, Su explained that there may be other solutions, including the use of AI and machine learning for high-performance computing.
While this may mean a nominal sacrifice of accuracy, working to improve it can be a step forward. Whatever combination of methods AMD and other companies ultimately use to deliver performance improvements, it’s clear that the road between the first zettaflop-enabled HPC and actual use is likely to be a long one.
By Register (opens in a new tab)