Performance Evaluation of a Next-Generation SX-Aurora TSUBASA Vector Supercomputer

Abstract

Data movement is a key bottleneck in terms of both performance and energy efficiency in modern HPC systems. The NEC SX-series supercomputers have a long history of accelerating memory-intensive HPC applications by providing sufficient memory bandwidth to applications. In this paper, we analyze the performance of a prototype SX-Aurora TSUBASA supercomputer equipped with the brand-new Vector Engine (VE30) processor. VE30 is the first major update to the Vector Engine processor series, and offers significantly improved memory access performance due to its renewed memory subsystem. Moreover, it introduces new instructions and incorporates architectural advancements tailored for accelerating memory-intensive applications. Using standard benchmarks, we demonstrate that VE30 considerably outperforms other processors in both performance and efficiency of memory-intensive applications. We also evaluate VE30 using applications including SPEChpc, and show that VE30 can run real-world applications with high performance. Finally, we discuss performance tuning techniques to obtain maximum performance from VE30.