apeNEXT: A Multi-TFlops computer for elementary particle physics

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the apeNEXl project, which is currently developing a massively parallel computer with a multi-TFlops performance. Like previous APE machines, the new supercomputer is completely custom designed and is specifically optimized for simulating the theory of strong interactions, quantum chromodynamics (QCD). The performance for key application kernels is assessed and a comparison is made with other machines used for these kinds of simulations. A functional model of the machine design has been used for benchmarking the architecture. The chapter presents a detailed discussion of the results and showed that the actual design goals of the project have been reached. Benchmark programs indicate that it will be possible to run key lattice gauge theory kernels at a sustained performance of 50% or more. While apeNEXT is designed as a special purpose machine optimized for simulating QCD. To make efficient use of these vast resources and to push towards development of future high performance computing capabilities an initiative on scientific parallel computing (SciParC) has been launched.