1 June 2010

University of Frankfurt Selects ClusterVision to Build 20,784 Processor Supercomputer

ClusterVision, specialist in high performance compute, storage and database clusters, has been selected to deliver the new flagship supercomputer of the Goethe University's Hessian high-performance computer organisation (HHLR-GU). This supercomputer called "LOEWE-CSC" has 20,784 processor cores plus 772 GPGPU hardware accelerators, which adds up to a theoretical peak performance of 599 TeraFLOPs (599 trillion calculations per second) in double precision and 2259 TeraFLOPS in single precision. On today's TOP500 list of fastest computers in the world, LOEWE-CSC could rank amongst the top 15.

Scientists at the Goethe University and in the state of Hessen will be using LOEWE-CSC for a wide range of scientific research, ranging from theoretical physics and chemistry to life sciences and computer science. This research is supported amongst others by the Frankfurt Cluster of Excellence for Macromolecular Complexes (CEF-MC), the LOEWE Helmholtz International Centre (HIC) for FAIR, the LOEWE Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiKF), the Transregio SFB 49 Condensed Matter Systems with Variable Many-Body Interactions, the Frankfurt Bernstein Focus Neurotechnology DMSPiN, and the Hessian Quantum Chemistry Initiative.

"This supercomputer represents a new era for high-performance computing at the University of Frankfurt. The LOEWE-CSC supercomputer will allow us to run a large range of scientific applications at an unprecedented scale, but also at a ground-breaking performance-to-power-consumption ratio," said professor Volker Lindenstruth, Chair of HPC Architecture at the Goethe University. "We are pleased that ClusterVision has won this competitive procurement because they have an excellent reputation at the University of Frankfurt. The new system implements the most competitive balance between performance, energy consumption, space and cost."

The supercomputer will be built by ClusterVision using Bright Cluster Manager™ as the cluster management software, which is unique due to its built-in functionality for large and complex HPC clusters. At the heart of the cluster will be 386 units of 2U Supermicro GPU-optimised Twin servers with two hot-plug nodes each, 1544 AMD Opteron 12-core "Magny-Cours" CPUs, 772 ATI Radeon GPGPUs, and QDR Mellanox InfiniBand. The supercomputer will also have 420 TeraBytes of disk storage from Dell with an extremely fast, 10GB/s, parallel FhGFS filesystem from the Fraunhofer Institute ITWM in Kaiserslautern.

About the HHLR-GU
The Goethe-University's Hessian high performance computer organisation (HHLR-GU) coordinates all IT and HPC activities at the Goethe University. Part of HHLR-GU is the Center for Scientific Computing, which was founded as a joint initiative of research groups from the university departments Physics, Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy, Geosciences, Computer Science and Mathematics, and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies (FIAS). The mission of the CSC is HPC support for the scientific community and education in Computational Science. The CSC organises the interdisciplinary master program Computational Science and regular seminars. It will also operate the new flagship computer LOEWE-CSC.

About ClusterVision
ClusterVision is specialist in the design, implementation and support of small- and large-scale computer clusters. Their clustering technology provides a cost-effective alternative to traditional supercomputers by connecting multiple computers to form a unified powerful computing system. ClusterVision's team of experts has designed and built some of the largest and most complex computational, storage and database clusters in Europe. With a background in applied scientific research and practical experience with a wide range of HPC technologies, the team understands customers' requirements and provides tailor-made solutions. ClusterVision has offices in Amsterdam, Gloucester (UK), Munich, Paris, Geneva, Milan, Oslo and Madrid.

For more information
Christopher Huggins
ClusterVision BV
Nieuw-Zeelandweg 15B
1045 AL Amsterdam
Netherlands
Tel: +31 20 407 7550
Fax: +31 84 759 8389
christopher [dot] huggins [at] clustervision [dot] com

The new supercomputer at the University of Frankfrut will be running Bright Cluster Manager Advanced Edition

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