Ookami: Deployment and Initial Experiences

Ookami [3] is a computer technology testbed supported by the United States National Science Foundation. It provides researchers with access to the A64FX processor developed by Fujitsu [17] in collaboration with RIKΞN  [35, 37] for the Japanese path to exascale computing, as deployed in Fugaku [36], the fastest computer in the world [34]. By focusing on crucial architectural details, the ARM-based, multi-core, 512-bit SIMD-vector processor with ultrahigh-bandwidth memory promises to retain familiar and successful programming models while achieving very high performance for a wide range of applications. We review relevant technology and system details, and the main body of the paper focuses on initial experiences with the hardware and software ecosystem for micro-benchmarks, mini-apps, and full applications, and starts to answer questions about where such technologies fit into the NSF ecosystem.