The first cluster of the new supercomputer centre for science and power industry
Pn, 09 maj 2011 19:27:00 +0200
The first test computing cluster of the Świerk Computing Centre (CIŚ), currently under development within the A. Sołtan Institute for Nuclear Studies, has been put into operation at the nuclear centre near Otwock. “Our first small cluster is based on 72 cores working together with 150 GB of RAM memory and 50 TB of disk space,” says Adam Padee, M.Sc. Eng., head of the team creating the CIŚ computational infrastructure. “Ultimately, next year, following the completion of the adaptation works of the Centre building, we will begin to assemble infrastructure consisting of several tens of thousands of processors, dozens of tetrabytes of RAM memory and several petabytes of memory on disks. Users will have diverse software environments at their disposal,” explains the computer scientists.
The new test cluster of the Świerk Computing Centre is put into operation
(Source: Marek Pawłowski, IPJ)
CIŚ is an IPJ undertaking, co-financed under the European Regional Development Fund within the framework of the Operational Programme Innovative Economy. The supercomputer centre created in the course of the project will provide computing powers for scientists, engineers and government institutions working mainly in the field of power industry, including nuclear power engineering. “One of our priorities will be calculations and safety analyses of designed, built and operating nuclear installations,” informs Prof. Grzegorz Wrochna, director of IPJ. “Thanks to collaboration with nuclear safety organizations from around the world we assemble computer codes that make it possible to model processes occurring in nuclear installations as well as the operation of devices and subsystems of nuclear power plants even in the most extreme conditions – such as the ones in Fukushima,” adds Prof. Wrochna. Computer scientists and analysts from CIŚ already today learn to operate programs obtained, among others, from the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Putting the test cluster in operation will allow the administrators to learn to manage the operation of the infrastructure and user activities. Users from analysis teams will be able to run and test their applications in conditions close to the target ones.
The new test cluster of the Świerk Computing Centre is put into operation.
(Source: Marek Pawłowski, IPJ)
“The Centre will make available its computing powers to many users – both our scientists and external users,” says Prof. Wojciech Wiślicki, director of CIŚ. “We plan to undertake first tasks already in 2012.” Apart from computing powers, CIŚ will provide a range of ready tools and an environment for running one’s own applications. Computer scientists from the Centre will also collaborate with users in creating dedicated algorithmic solutions. “The unique feature of our offer will be the possibility to process data protected for the purpose of user security or interest,” adds Prof. Wiślicki. It will be possible to take advantage of the potential of CIŚ in many fields. The computing powers and the installed software will make it possible, among others, to optimize the construction and load of energy grids or cellular networks and to optimize investment decisions on financial markets. The Open Foam package, useful for modelling flow dynamics – for example in technical devices but also in natural and urban environment, particularly for forecasting the spread of contamination, will be installed already in the test cluster. This, among others, is the task of a team of specialists from CIŚ and from the Institute of Atomic Energy POLATOM. On the target cluster, users will have the Ansys Fluent package at their disposal. High computing powers will also allow complex statistical analyses – currently, for example, thanks to a grant from the Foundation for Polish Science, a group of researchers is being set up at IPJ that will engage in statistical verification of scientific hypotheses in the field of elementary particle physics. CIŚ will provide its computing powers and services also for other scientific institutions and interested business entities.
The first test computing cluster of the Świerk Computing Centre.
(Source: Marek Pawłowski, IPJ)
