QUonG: A GPU-based HPC System Dedicated to LQCD Computing

Abstract

QUonG is an INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare) initiative targeted to develop a high performance computing system dedicated to Lattice QCD computations. QUonG is a massively parallel computing platform that lever-ages on commodity multi-core processors coupled with last generation GPUs. Its network mesh exploits the characteristics of LQCD algorithm for the design of a point-to-point, high performance, low latency 3-d torus network to interconnect the computing nodes. The network is built upon the APE net+ project: it consists of an FPGA-based PCI Express board exposing six full bidirectional off-board links running at 34 Gbps each, and implementing RDMA protocol and an experimental direct network-to-GPU interface, enabling significant access latency reduction for inter-node data transfers. The final shape of a complete QUonG deployment is an assembly of standard 42U racks, each one capable of 60 TFlops/rack of peak performance, at a cost of 5 Ke/TFlops and for an estimated power consumption of 25 KW/rack. A first QUonG system prototype is expected to be delivered at the end of the year 2011.