기초과학연구원(IBS, 원장 노도영)의 슈퍼컴퓨터 2호기인 ‘올라프(Olaf)’가 세계 10위 초절전형 슈퍼컴퓨터로 등재됐다.
▲IBS Supercomputer No. 2 Olaf
Ranked 10th in the world in energy efficiency (Green500)
The Institute for Basic Science (IBS, President Do-Young Noh)'s second supercomputer, 'Olaf', has been listed as one of the world's top 10 ultra-low-power supercomputers.
The global non-profit organization 'Top500 (Top500.org)' announced on the 13th at the 'Supercomputing Conference 23 (SC23)' held in Denver, Colorado, USA that IBS' Olaf was newly listed on the Top500 ranking and achieved 10th place in the world in the energy efficiency category (Green500).
The world's supercomputer rankings are released annually at the International Supercomputing Conference (ISC) held in Europe in June and the Supercomputing Conference (SC) held in the United States in November. The Top500 ranking is determined by the maximum performance achieved (Rmax), which is a measured value of the High-Performance Leanpack (HPL) benchmark, and the Green500 ranking is determined based on the energy efficiency used during the benchmark.
IBS' Olaf achieved a measured performance of 2.03 PF (petaflops: 1,000 trillion calculations per second) and a power efficiency of 45.12 GFlops/Watts in the HPL benchmark results.
Among the 12 Korean supercomputers that made it into this year's Top500 ranking, the major computers that made it into the Green500 ranking include Samsung Electronics' 'SSC-21 Scalable Module' (17th, 33.98 GFlops/Watts) and the Korea Meteorological Administration's 'Maru' and 'Guru' (98th, 5.46 GFlops/Watts).
Olaf is 1.3 times and 8.3 times more energy efficient than these, respectively.
In order to enhance the national basic science competitiveness, IBS launched the Research Solution Center in May 2020 and is jointly utilizing large-scale research facility equipment that is difficult for individual researchers to build with not only IBS researchers but also domestic basic science researchers.
In the case of Olaf, construction began in 2020 to analyze large-scale research data produced by large-scale research facilities owned by IBS, such as YemiLab, cryo-EM, next-generation sequencer (NGS), and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).
OLAF, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, will have a total computing performance 3.3 times faster and a storage capacity 1.6 times larger than IBS's first supercomputer, ALEPH, which began operation in 2019.
About 300 researchers from 15 universities including Seoul National University and KAIST, 5 government-funded research institutes, and companies are already jointly using Olaf.
Currently, IBS is responding to the demand for generative artificial intelligence-based research. We are currently working on building a data analysis system for Olaf. After a benchmark test in December 2023 and a two-month pilot operation starting in January 2024, we plan to officially operate Olaf starting in March 2024.
IBS President Noh Do-young said, “IBS has already enhanced the nation’s competitiveness in basic science through leading basic science research utilizing our first supercomputer, Aleph, and with the completion of OLAF by the end of this year, we expect to further enhance our competitiveness in research utilizing supercomputers.” He added, “Being listed on the Green500 is an achievement that clearly demonstrates OLAF’s high energy efficiency, and it will be of great help in resolving the difficulties in operating supercomputers due to the rapid rise in electricity rates.”