Third Workshop on Computer Architecture and Operating System

In 2004 Blue Gene made a significant impact by introducing an ultra-scalable computer with a focus on low power. After that, Blue Gene/L maintained the number 1 spot on the top500 list for an unprecedented 7 lists. In 2007 Blue Gene/P was announced and a peak 1 PF machine installed at Juelich, and Blue Gene/P garnered the top position on the green 500 list. At Supercomputing 2011 we announced Blue Gene/Q, a 208 TF per rack machine, obtaining over 2 GF/watt of computing, which obtained the number 1 position on the green 500, and a 4 rack machine was ranked number 17 on the top 500 list. Blue Gene/Q also was number 1 on the graph 500 list. The announced LLNL Sequoia machine will be a 96 rack, 20 PF machine, and will be delivered in mid 2012. Blue Gene/Q contains innovative technology including hardware transactional memory and speculative execution, as well as mechanisms such as scalable atomic operations and a wakeup unit to help us better exploit the 17 cores and 68 threads per node. In the talk I will describe the base architecture of Blue Gene/Q include the hardware, packaging, and software with a focus on the codesign process between the applications, system software, and hardware teams that lead to the above capability. I will also describe how Blue Gene/Q is a research vehicle for helping us explore the challenges that face us on the road to exascale.