Penguin Computing deploys APU-based servers

On November 2, Penguin Computing announced that they successfully deployed the first high performance computing (HPC) cluster, that uses AMD Accelerated Processing Units (APUs). The cluster consists of 104 new Altus 2A00 servers, interconnected with QDR Infiniband switched link. According to Penguin Computing, the cluster has peak performance 59.6 TFLOPs, or 59.6 * 1,000,000,000,000 floating point operations per second.

Each 2A00 server employs 1 quad-core APU from A6- or 8-Series, which integrates memory controller, PCI-Express controller, and 320 or 400 graphics stream processors. The server supports up to 64 GB of DDR3-1600 or DDR3-1866 memory, and can have up to 8 hot-swappable disk of solid state drives. The server provides several connectivity options, such as 40Gbps InfiniBand QDR, 10Gbs Ethernet NIC, or dual or quad 1Gb Ethernet connections. The server is housed in a 2U form factor chassis.