computer intuition
Moscow State Technical University (MSTU) NE Bauman created the world’s first supercomputer with processors built on the domestic microarchitecture “Leonard Euler” – “Teragraph”. This was reported to socialbites.ca by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation, and the general designer of the project, Alexei Popov, spoke in detail.
The computer is designed to work with pseudo-graphics. As Georgy Polyakov, a machine learning researcher at Kryptonit, explains, graphs are a collection of objects and the relationships between these objects based on their parameters. In mathematics, objects are called vertices, and the connections between them are called edges.
“There are many examples from life that can be expressed graphically. For example, an airline’s intercity flight chart is a graph. “Airports in cities act as peaks, and having a direct airway between cities acts as an edge,” said Polyakov.
Valery Andreev, Ph.D., Deputy Director General for Science and Development at IVK, the effect of price on the value of metals.
“Computation using graphs makes it possible to find information about events with an unclear relationship in large datasets. For example, how several people are interconnected, how some banking operations affect the dynamics of others, etc. Establishing solid connections between objects and their parameters makes it possible to make a qualitative forecast. “This is a valuable opportunity for any field of activity, from banking and wholesale trade to forensic medicine.”
The project’s general designer, Alexey Popov, says the uniqueness of Teragraph’s long-term work with graphics will allow it to create digital twins of people and experiment on them with different treatment modalities to choose the most effective one. Analyzing the initial data, the processor will offer different solutions for the treatment process. He calls this feature of the device “intuition”.
“Imagine you have various parameters of the human body displayed on your computer. In the program, you can monitor the effects of different drugs without endangering the patient. Popov can apply the treatment to the person after choosing the most appropriate solution in the program.
what is the computer made of
Teragraph is a system based on an Intel central processor running Linux, to which three auxiliary computing modules are connected – Leonard Euler processors. Secondly, it visually resembles video cards connected to the motherboard.
We used FPGAs to build the Leonhard Euler modules. [программируемые логические интегральные схемы. — «Газета.Ru»]empty “spaces” of AMD chips on which we write the instructions for our architecture as firmware, says Popov.
At the hardware level, Bauman University explains that its processors are based on AMD chips, but work according to unique algorithms created by Russian scientists. A chip without such algorithms cannot be called a processor. Its processor is made by low-level software with Leonard Euler architecture.
Popov claims that if necessary, it is possible to create a unique Russian chip based on the Leonard Euler architecture. However, the developers have not yet given themselves such a task. At least because there are no funds for the production of chips of this level in Russia.
Each Leonard Euler module has 24 cores clocked at only 200 MHz. However, when working with graphics, even these specifications are enough to outperform the most powerful Intel Xeon server processors with a frequency of 3 GHz.
“With comparable specifications, the efficiency of processors based on the Leonard Euler architecture is much higher than that of Intel,” said Popov.
He also emphasized that the multiplicity of this efficiency only applies to calculations using graphics. For tasks where classical arithmetic calculations are required, Leonard Euler processors are no match for x86 and ARM. That is why developers are opposed to positioning their projects as competitors to Intel, AMD, Baikal or Elbrus. And “Leonard Euler” can be an auxiliary component, not a replacement component for the central processor.
The high efficiency of Leonard Euler processors when working with graphics is due not to arithmetic formulas, but precisely to the architecture configured to work with them.
“Yes, conventional processors on x86 and ARM platforms can also work with graphics. But because of their instruction-level logic, Leonard Euler can count millions of graphs in parallel while calculating each graph in turn.”
Other advantages of processors based on the new Russian architecture are the cost-effectiveness of the materials required for the manufacture of the processor and power consumption. These chips require 200x less silicon and consume 10x less power than a single Intel Xeon family of microprocessors. In the future, this opens the possibility of using Leonard Euler processors in IoT devices.
Graphics issues
Despite the development of specialists from the university. Bauman looks promising, its use in practice is very problematic. Popov himself talks about this first of all.
“The problem is that for our processor to work, the initial information must be written as data array graphs. However, the vast majority of information in databases is systematized in tabular form.
According to him, there are several solutions to this problem. The first is the graphical compilation of new databases. The second is the conversion of table archives to graphic archives. Both options take time.
“Today, this development of specialists from the university. Bauman seems to me relevant only within the framework of his research activities. In my opinion, the relevance of the solution for the IT industry is still low,” says Valery Andreev of IVC.
The problem, according to him, is that the IT industry is moving towards compressing transistors in processors and is looking less at alternative computing systems. But according to him, the situation may change radically in the near future, as the current vector of industry development has reached its limit.
“The efforts of university experts. Bauman should by no means be considered in vain. I am sure that sooner or later the time will come when many will need this development of Russian engineers,” he said.
Popov states that despite the prototype stage, the Moscow Department of Information Technologies and the Center for Systems Biology in Rospotrebnadzor are already interested in the project.
Currently, the Teragraph is being prepared for pilot use within the walls of Bauman University. According to Popov, the supercomputer will be used to calculate threats to state security based on graphs prepared by the development team. The project should start before the end of 2022.
Source: Gazeta
