Part 13. Vector Processor not dead yet!

content by Xing Chen

After Cray, it is NEC’s turn to stop producing machines with vector processors as their Central Processing Units (CPUs): NEC’s SX-ACE vector processor, which follows SX-9 so equals to SX-10, as in hexadecimal numeral system ACE=A=10 😉, is the last generation vector processor that was used as the CPU of a supercomputer. A vector processor, supposed to be used as the Central Processing Unit (CPU) of a modern HPC system, doesn’t exist anymore as no more such machines are produced ever since, except the existing ones.

But, no, the vector processor, in the sense of being a processor, is not dead yet! In 2017, NEC published its SX-Aurora TSUBASA product line, called “Vector Engine”. https://fr.nec.com/fr_FR/global/solutions/hpc/sx/index.html

Basically, NEC advanced and adapted their SX-ACE vector processor architecture (as shown here under), put everything onto a standard PCIe card; since now on, a vector machine is no more a big one that occupies one or multiple computer rack(s), but a small accelerator in PCIe card form factor, amazing! (Hereunder the 2nd figure shows the new Vector Engine processor architecture, it differentiates itself from the SX-ACE vector processor mainly by its memory and I/O subsystems.)

For those who want to know more about this Vector Engine, here is a deep dive: https://www.nextplatform.com/2017/11/22/deep-dive-necs-aurora-vector-engine/