NEC Corporation (TSE: 6701) has launched its PCIe-based Vector Engine card (Vector Engine) globally. It’s aimed at High Performance Computing (HPC) use cases for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). The shipment of the Vector Engine will start from January 2021.
The Vector Engine is the core component of NEC’s SX-Aurora TSUBASA vector supercomputer, which has been deployed to more than 100 customers worldwide since 2018. The Vector Engine provides a 2.45 TeraFlops computation capability and a 1.53 TeraBytes/second memory bandwidth with around 200W power consumption for processing scientific applications. This high computation capability and power efficiency are enabled by eight powerful cores, making it possible to accelerate data intensive scientific applications with lower power consumption.
Sourcing this Vector Engine from NEC would allow systems integrators to offer vector computing systems by combining the Vector Engine and general x86 servers from other IT vendors. At the same time, it would enable server manufacturers to develop and market their own-branded vector computing servers using the Vector Engine.
Systems Integrators, Server Vendors
NEC has already identified and partnered with several system integrators specializing in the HPC sector, including Colfax International in the United States and ViSUAL TECHNOLOGY in Japan, to supply the Vector Engine for their system integration projects. NEC plans to further expand the partner network so that more end-users may benefit from NEC’s vector computing solutions.
“On top of the traditional applications, such as large-scale scientific simulation systems for weather forecasting, climate modeling and fluid analysis, we have seen rapidly growing demand from SMEs for vector computing systems in the field of electromagnetic field analysis, computational chemistry and structural analysis for instance,” said Kazunori Sudo, Senior Vice President, NEC Corporation. “With the launch of the Vector Engine, and by working closely with systems integrators and server manufacturers worldwide, we will fulfill this expanding need and deliver our innovative solutions to broader and more diversified customers.”
