which would be the optimal hardware for future Nwchem versions ?


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Dear Nwchem Developers,

We are currently running Nwchem over AMD CPUS, and we plan to buy new hardware equipment for the next coming year. Thus, we would like to know which hardware architecture would be the best to run future versions of Nwchem.

So my question is : is x86 CPUS still the best option or would it be more profitable to run future Nwchem versions on new architectures like GPU and/or Intel Xeon Phi ?

Best Regards,
Edrisse

Forum Regular
Hi Edrisse,

I'll give you my two cents worth on this but it is likely that you will get another perspective from Karol and/or Edo.

Obviously in HPC there is a drive towards GPU and Intel Xeon Phi systems to reduce the energy requirements. In our efforts we are addressing these platforms as best as we can. However, achieving good performance on those platforms requires a fair chunk of work. Therefore, my expectation is that we are still some time away from getting optimal performance on the whole breath of NWChem capabilities on these accelerator based platforms. So unless you're targetting specific capabilities we are currently working on I would guess that it is too early to buy an accelerator based machine to run NWChem. The machine after your next machine we will be ready...

Huub

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Hi Huub,

Thanks for your answer, this was my feeling also but I just wanted to make sure.
So, yes I think we'll go for x86 CPUs again.

Cheers,
Edrisse


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