Forschungszentrum Jülich enters the future of high-performance cluster
computing in close cooperation with companies from EU and USA. With
the JuRoPA system (JuRoPA stands for "Juelich Research on Petaflop
Architectures"), a new cost-efficient performance class of
supercomputers shall be realized and possible paths towards peta-scale
general purpose computers is going to be explored. A balanced
combination of the hardware and software components optimizes the
communication between the high-performance processing units. At the ISC07
in Dresden, Germany, the JuRoPA-Partners will announce the projekt at
an afternoon reception on Wednesday, June 27.
NOTE: INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS NEWS RELEASE IS EMBARGOED
UNTIL 9 A.M. (Central European Time) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27, 2007.
Cluster computers are built modularly using standard PC technology and
very fast networks. Being ideal instruments for a wide range of
simulation problems they stand for a large proportion of the most
powerful computers in the world. The decisive factor for such a
collection of parallel working computers is the extremely fast
transmission of signals across the network, the "backbone" of the
computer.
The aim of the JuRoPA project is the development of general purpose
clusters based on INTEL processor technology, QUADRICS interconnect,
PARTEC Cluster Software and IBM System x technology. The processing
power of the JuRoPA system is constituted by Intel Xeon 5160
processors. "Intel Dual-core processors were chosen in order to create an
ideal balance between compute-power, memory bandwidth and energy consumption", says
Thomas Lippert, director of the Jülich Institute for Supercomputing.
The prototype system comprises IBM x3550 compute nodes connected by
Quadrics network technology. In a first phase QsTenG -- Quadrics'
solution based on 10-Gigabit Ethernet -- and QsNet-II networks are
used. Each compute-node is equipped with a Elan-adapter and NetEffect
10G-Ethernet NIC during this phase. In a second stage of the project
the cluster will be upgraded to QsNet-III, the next generation
Quadrics interconnect. QsNet-III provides new levels of HPC
performance, for which Quadrics is renown, in a standards compliant
and cost effective manner. The first QsNet-III networks will provide
both low latency and scalable bandwidth for 256 to 16384 nodes.
"Our partnership with Julich, Intel, IBM and ParTec marks a
significant step in the development of commodity supercomputer
systems" says Giovanni Trezza, chairman of Quadrics, "we expect this
alliance to deliver key components for general purpose peta-scale
systems in Europe".
In order to coordinate the interoperation of the
computing-capabilities of the compute-nodes and the
communication-potential of the interconnect the cluster operating
system ParaStation is employed. ParaStation is a joint development of
the Munich-based company ParTec and Forschungszentrum Jülich.
All integration of various components will take place in Jülich. A
crucial aspect for Forschungszentrum Jülich is a deep integration of
Intel's Cluster tools in order to bring the system to production level
quality. Such an environment is the basic prerequisite in order to be
able to conduct a detailed analysis of the system with real
applications from the scientific users.
JuRoPA is part of Jülich's ongoing strategy to explore emerging
technologies that shall pave the way towards a European Peta-scale
supercomputer complex.
More about Supercomputers in Jülich:
www.fz-juelich.de/supercomputer
Contact:
Norbert Eicker
Forschungszentrum Jülich
Tel. ++49-(0)2461/61-1492
Mail. n.eicker@fz-juelich.de
Criteria of this press release:
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Research projects, Transfer of Science or Research
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