Together with National Institute of Genetics and RIKEN, we have implemented PZLAST, a metagenomic homology search software developed on the ZettaScaler-2.0 server, on the new ZettaScaler-3.0 Server Unit.

1.　Overview and Features:

1) Each ZettaScaler-3.0 Server Unit (= 4 PEZY-SC3 processors) provides the equivalent processing power of 1 brick (= 32 PEZY-SC2 processors) of ZettaScaler-2.0 (Table 1 below). This eliminates the need for an immersion system and can be installed in a 4U by 19"rack.
2) The four modules of PEZY-SC3 are used in parallel to enable high-speed searches.
3) By using a large-capacity RAM (1TB) as a work area, CPU-side processing is much faster than in ZettaScaler-2.0.

4) In addition to the speed improvement by changing from PEZY-SC2 to PEZY-SC3, various algorithms have been optimized.

5) The metagenome database, which exceeds 2TB, is stored on an internal SSD for fast database access. This eliminates the need for external high-speed storage that was required with ZettaScaler-2.0.

6) Parallelization with multiple computers, as done in ZettaScaler-2.0, remains effective. This system can also be scaled up by adding more computers.

Table 1: Comparison of PZLAST homology search times for ZettaScaler-2.0 and 3.0 (as of July 15, 2022)

2.　ZettaScaler-3.0 Server Unit specification

baseboard: ExaScaler EPX-BASE2 x 1 CPU: AMD EPYC x 1
accelerator：PEZY Computing MOD-SC3H (PCIe Gen4x16 bus) x max 4 modules
main memory：DDR4 ECC Registered 3200MHz SDRAM 1TB(max 2TB)

Storage：M.2 NVMe SSD 2TB x 4

OS：AlmaLinux 9

＊ZettaScaler-3.0 Server Unit