NEW YORK: The US Department of Energy is nearing a deal to purchase a supercomputer made with chips from Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices as a key lab waits for a larger supercomputer from Intel Corp that has been delayed for months, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
Instead, Polaris, which will come online this year, will be a test machine for Argonne to start readying its software for the Intel machine, the people familiar with the matter said. Intel, AMD and Nvidia are battling for market share for chips used in data centres. The United States' array of supercomputers do scientific work for healthcare, climate and other researchers, as well as performing virtual testing of the country's nuclear weapons.
When Aurora was first announced, Intel and Argonne said the machine would be delivered in 2021, but Intel still has not delivered the key Ponte Vecchio and Sapphire Rapids chips. Intel said in June that the Sapphire Rapids chips would not be in production until 2022, and on Tuesday Intel spokesperson Will Moss said the company remained committed to delivering the computer in 2022.