SC Conference - Activity Details

Michael Wehner  (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)

Toward Exascale Climate Modeling

Thursday,  11:15AM - 12:00PM

Room PB252

Since the first numerical weather experiments in the late 1940s by John Von Neumann, machine limitations have dictated to scientists how nature could be studied by computer simulation. As the processors used in traditional parallel computers have become ever more complex, electrical power demands are approaching hard limits dictated by cooling and power considerations. It is clear that the growth in scientific computing capabilities of the last few decades is not sustainable unless fundamentally new ideas are brought to bear. In this talk we discuss a radically new approach to high-performance computing (HPC) design via an application-driven hardware and software co-design which leverages design principles from the consumer electronics marketplace. The methodology we propose has the potential of significantly improving energy efficiency, reducing cost, and accelerating the development cycle of exascale systems for targeted applications. Our approach is motivated by a desire to simulate the Earth’s atmosphere at kilometer scales.