Frontier vs the Exascale Report: Why so long? and Are We Really There Yet?

Now that the exascale Frontier is here, it is instructive to compare its properties to those projected in the 2008 Exascale technology report, and ask what’s different, why did it seemingly take so long to get here, and what lessons should we take away for future machines. This article discusses these points from the aspects of the original ground rules for the Exascale report, the technologies involved, and the changes in architecture and microarchitecture. It also starts a discussion of zettascale systems.