 ClusterVision are pleased to announce their successful completion of the UK's largest Intel® Xeon™ EM64T cluster at the University of Lancaster's Department of Physics.
The high performance cluster comprises both compute and storage elements as required by the University of Lancaster as a Tier 2 DataGrid Site in the UK. It is based on the Intel Xeon EM64T processor, Intel's new flagship server processor which is fully compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit applications. The 209 dual processor compute servers or "nodes" are managed by two master nodes. Access to the storage is provided by 7 I/O servers and 14 RAID units, which provide a massive total of 84TB of storage space. As part of the EU EGEE and CERN LHC Computing Grid projects, the cluster's 418 processors will be used to analyse the millions of bytes of data generated by the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which are fundamental to extending our understanding of the events immediately following the "Big Bang" and the creation of matter. Dr Roger Jones from Lancaster University's Department of Physics and a member of the ATLAS experiment led the project: "Lancaster required powerful computing combined with price performance and support in order to meet the computing challenges even in the preparation phase of the Large Hadron Collider. ClusterVision were selected out of a competitive field, and have worked closely with us on the commissioning of the system. They also provided the 84TB of data store that we require." The procurement was one of a series of Science Research Investment Fund collaborative tendering exercises funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. The lead procurement body in this case was Purchasing & Supply Services at Heriot-Watt University (http://www.HE-Purchasing.ac.uk). 
Part of the new ClusterVision compute cluster at the University of Lancaster.
On completion of the project, Dr Peter Love, a Research Associate at the Lancaster Department of Physics and closely involved with the installation was happy to state that ClusterVision had performed "a very good job with very thorough burn-in tests." "Intel is pleased to be associated with the University of Lancaster and the work of Dr Roger Jones and Dr Peter Love in harnessing its Intel Xeon processor-based cluster technology as a resource for progressing output from the EU EGEE Project. Intel support further understanding across various scientific and research communities and have been impressed with the delivery of this project by ClusterVision", commented Sean McGuire, Head of Education & Research, Intel UK. About the LHC Computing Grid & the EGEE Project
The LHC (Large Hadron Collider) Computing Grid, is a flagship Grid project to provide a computational and data intensive grid of resources for collaborative research and scientific exploration, carried forward in partnership with the EGEE (Enabling Grids for eScience in Europe) Project, which is funded through the European Union Framework Programme. For more information see:
http://lcg.web.cern.ch/LCG/
http://public.eu-egee.org About Intel
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products. Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com/pressroom.
Intel and Xeon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. About ClusterVision
ClusterVision are specialists in the design, implementation and support of large-scale computer clusters. Their clustering technology provides an alternative to traditional supercomputing by connecting multiple computers to form a unified computing system. ClusterVision's technical and sales team have designed and built some of the largest and most complex computational, storage and database clusters in the UK, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. With a background in applied scientific research and practical experience with a wide range of supercomputer technologies the team understands customers' requirements and provides tailor-made solutions. The company works together with the University of Amsterdam, which is also a shareholder in ClusterVision through its technology transfer company, PCC. ClusterVision's customers include government organisations and industries which benefit from chemical modelling, financial modelling, drug discovery, biotechnical research, oil and gas exploration and many more where there is a need for large-scale compute power, data processing and storage capacity. In the United Kingdom customers include Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Imperial College London and the Universities of Oxford, Durham and Leeds. In the Netherlands ClusterVision has carried out projects for Delft Hydraulics, TNO and the Universities of Groningen, and Amsterdam, amongst others. For more information
Ms Georgina Ellis
ClusterVision Ltd
17 Essington House
Lytton Grove
London SW15 2ET
United Kingdom
Tel: +44 870 080 1991
www.clustervision.com
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