Fujitsu has revealed that the company is preparing a successor to its A64FX processor for high-performance computing. The company’s second-generation Arm-based server CPUs are expected to offer significantly higher performance and energy efficiency than previous generations, adding capabilities to address AI and data analytics applications. The CPU, codenamed Monaka, may appear in 2027 and will power the next-generation supercomputer due in 2028.
Like the original A64FX, Fujitsu’s Monaka will once again be an Arm ISA processor. But it also plans to integrate hardware to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics applications, according to details the company announced at the ActivateNow: Technology Summit at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The Register reports.
The promise of improving the performance of traditional HPC and new AI workloads is logical. Fujitsu’s existing A64FX already supports 512-bit Scalable Vector Extensions (SVE) and can operate in FP64, FP32, FP16 and INT8 modes for various AI and traditional supercomputer applications, New FP16 and beyond INT8 data formats in the rapidly evolving field of AI workloads. Retaining the Arm architecture, on the other hand, will allow the Monaka processor to run code developed for its original A64FX CPU and other Arm-based system-on-chips for data centers.
A Fujitsu spokesperson said, “The next-generation DC CPU (Monaka) we are developing will have a wider range of features and will prove to be more energy efficient.” register“It has a wider range of applications than the A64FX, which has characteristics unique to Fugaku (interconnect, etc.).
One of Fujitsu’s main goals with Monaka, it claims, is to offer “outstanding energy efficiency” compared to competing processors available at the time. register Quoting company officials: The company aims to deliver 70% higher overall performance than competing chips and 100% higher performance per watt than his. A delivery date isn’t expected until 2027, but needless to say, competitive performance expectations are ambitious at best.
Fujitsu’s current 48+4 core A64FX processor for HPC has proven that the Arm architecture can perfectly power a supercomputer (in this case Fugaku, the world’s fastest supercomputer from 2020 to 2022). . However, CPUs are primarily tuned for traditional supercomputer workloads. As a result, it is used in only a few systems, including Fugaku, Fujitsu’s PrimeHPC FX700 and FX1000 systems (available for purchase), and HPE’s Apollo 80 HPC platform.
Monaka, on the other hand, will allow Fujitsu to challenge itself to deliver high-performance Arm processors to the broader HPC market. The company has not provided specific technical details at this time, but it will use the supercomputer-focused A64FX and the on-package HBM2 and Tofu Interconnect D fabrics to connect multiple nodes in a cluster. increase. Shifting to a wider audience opens up sales opportunities for Fujitsu, but also exposes the company to direct competition from other Arm server CPU vendors, including many internal projects from NVIDIA, Ampere, and hyperscalers. will be
Either way, it will be interesting to see how 2027 unfolds after Monaka comes out. The Arm server CPU market has blossomed so quickly in the last few years that by the time Monaka comes out, it’s a market with lots of opportunities for Arm servers and Arm software, but there are companies trying to claim a piece of the pie. It is also a market that is not in short supply.
