Supernode Expands up to 128 Cores, 2TB RAM

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The bullx supernodes are designed for engineering calculations, physics simulation, and more.

Last week French supercomputing specialist Bull announced that it extended and updated its bullx family of supercomputers with the launch of its new bullx supernodes (S-Series) line. According to the company, these four-socket SMP (Symmetric Multi-Processing) server nodes can be expanded to support up to 128 cores (8, 12 or 16 processors) and 2TB of RAM.

When available, Bull will offer two versions in its new S-Series: the ultra-compact high-end bullx S6010 compute node, and the bullx S6030 service node. The S6010, seen in the image to the right, features L-shaped 1.5U drawers--one upside-down on top of the other--to form a 3U drawer that can house a 8 or 16-processor configuration. Bull's other supernode, the S6030 model, provides "advanced connectivity functions, a redundant power supply and extended storage options," making them suitable to serve as management or I/O nodes.

In addition to the overall horsepower, the new S-Series is environmentally friendly, using an ultra-capacitor module to improve the efficiency of the electrical power supply by 10 to 15-percent. The supernodes also use a cooling door that consumes 75-percent less energy than standard air-conditioning, a processor control system that optimizes energy consumption, and an infrastructure design that optimizes the Flops/m² ratio.

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Kevin Parrish
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Kevin Parrish has over a decade of experience as a writer, editor, and product tester. His work focused on computer hardware, networking equipment, smartphones, tablets, gaming consoles, and other internet-connected devices. His work has appeared in Tom's Hardware, Tom's Guide, Maximum PC, Digital Trends, Android Authority, How-To Geek, Lifewire, and others.

26 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Simple11
    So how good is the reg on these servers? I'm in the market for some CS servers :P
    Reply
  • pbrigido
    Price?

    ...not that I would be able to afford it anyways.
    Reply
  • LATTEH
    THats a lot of ram O_O


    What program would be able to use all of it?
    Reply
  • Ehsan w
    damn 2 Terabytes of ram....
    Hmmmm Ram....
    Reply
  • frozenlead
    We ate 128GB of memory doing a CFD sim the other day...and I thought that was a lot..
    Reply
  • itadakimasu
    128 cores... 2TB of ram... But does it run crysis?
    Reply
  • WheelsOfConfusion
    Link is dead right now.

    What exactly does the supercap do to make the power supply more efficient? Just smooth out spikes and dips? Supply the high startup current to get the fans running?
    Reply
  • kelfen
    you could load your OS and all applications into ram making it so speedy
    Reply
  • balister
    9196483 said:
    THats a lot of ram O_O


    What program would be able to use all of it?

    Usually, when dealing with physical processes, like what happens with a nuclear weapon, you'd use what's known as Monte Carlo codes. Monte Carlo codes model highly random sitations (thus the name Monte Carlo cause you're rolling a die to see what happens effectively) like neutron scatter/absorbtion through a medium (in this case a neutron through say Uranium or Lithium Hydride). In essence, it's a way to test how powerful a nuclear weapon can be without actually setting it off (or even to look at how air travels over a foil like that of a wing). Because you are modelling such a complex system, imagine having to follow trillions of particles over a very short period of time (like nanoseconds in the case of a nuclear weapon), the programs can get quite involved. So when you're getting to situations that in depth, it takes a lot computing power.
    Reply
  • One day this will be standard desktop stuff- save the Xeon and multiple-sockets. By then crapware and OS bloat will also have reached epic proportions so we won't notice the difference anyway : )
    Reply