AMD-powered supercomputer El Capitan takes the global performance crown
Do It Super: AMD’s resurgence in the chip industry is influencing the specialized high-performance computing market as well. A few years after unveiling the world’s fastest supercomputer, the US chipmaker is once again making headlines by bringing another HPC powerhouse online.
AMD is once again dominating the Top500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers with El Capitan, a newly introduced HPC system housed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. The Santa Clara-based corporation collaborated with HPE to develop the exascale-class supercomputer, following its earlier success with Frontier at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
El Capitan is powered by AMD’s MI300A APUs, which are already generating significant revenue for the company. According to reports, the LLNL system is now the fastest supercomputer in the world, achieving a High-Performance Linpack (HPL) score of 1.742 exaflops. Linpack benchmarks are used to measure a system’s floating-point computing performance and are the standard for comparing different HPC designs on the Top500 list.
AMD is also highlighting its advancements in energy efficiency. Both El Capitan and Frontier rank prominently on the Green500 list, holding the 18th and 22nd positions, respectively. The chipmaker attributes this achievement to the energy-efficient design of its Epyc CPUs and the MI300A accelerators, which integrate CPU and GPU components into a single package.
El Capitan will be used by LLNL researchers to conduct “large ensembles” of high-fidelity 3D simulations, addressing some of the most complex scientific challenges. The new HPC system is also expected to significantly accelerate AI research. However, LLNL’s chief technology officer, Bronis R. de Supinski, noted that AI algorithms and models need to become more widespread in this field to maximize their impact.
AMD highlighted the growing adoption of its Epyc processors and Instinct accelerators in the HPC market. Numerous supercomputers now feature the company’s chips, including the HPC 6 system developed by Italian energy giant Eni, a new supercomputer under construction at the University of Paderborn utilizing the latest EPYC CPUs, and Norway’s Sigma2 AS.
In addition, AMD has announced a new partnership with IBM to offer Instinct MI300X accelerators “as a service” on the IBM Cloud platform. Scheduled for release in the first half of 2025, the service aims to enhance the performance of generative AI models for enterprise customers.
