Scientific
Applications:
NEW SGI SYSTEM ALLOWS EXTENSION OF
COSMOLOGY GRID
SGI has announced a contract to provide an SGI Altix 3000 supercluster to
the
U.K. COSMOS consortium led by Professor Stephen Hawking of the University of
Cambridge as part of a long-term agreement between the two organizations. The
latest addition to the consortium's SGI infrastructure, based on the Intel
Itanium 2 processor, will form the next phase of a British computational and
visualization grid installed by SGI to support the COSMOS project. This
initiative enables experts to collaborate on research to model the history of
the universe from the first fractions of a second after the Big Bang to the
present day, about 14 billion years later.
The Altix 3000 system, powered by128 Itanium 2 processors, will form the
core
of the U.K. cosmology grid (CosmoGrid), supporting collaboration between
consortium members through the continuation of integrated high-performance
computing (HPC) and complex data management, as well as remote collaborative
visualization using SGI Visual Area Networking technologies. Members of the
COSMOS consortium include the Department of Applied Mathematics and
Theoretical Physics, Institute of Astronomy, and Cavendish Laboratory at
Cambridge University, as well as Imperial College London, the University of
Portsmouth and the University of Sussex.
This 64-bit system, featuring Intel Itanium 2 processors running the Linux
operating system, supports SGI's close working relationship with Intel, which
has also provided two small servers to the consortium to support development
work. The decision to purchase the Altix 3000 supercluster was based on the
combination of highly scalable Itanium 2 performance, cache-coherent global
shared memory, integrated visualization and hierarchical storage. The system
allows for fast development time scales and high productivity using shared-
memory programming with OpenMP, while also producing excellent benchmark
results for distributed-memory programming codes based on MPI.
The contract is part of the long-term collaboration between Professor
Hawking's COSMOS consortium and SGI; the two entities have worked together
since 1997. The original COSMOS platform was a 32-processor SGI Origin 2000
server, later upgraded to a 64-processor SGI Onyx family server, including the
CXFS storage system. The Altix 128-processor system, set for installation in
mid-May, is a further indication of SGI's long-term commitment to the COSMOS
project.
Professor Stephen Hawking, principal investigator of the COSMOS consortium,
commented, "The new COSMOS computer, an SGI Altix 3000 system, will enable us
to keep up with the dramatic data about our universe which is now coming in.
We are pleased that our collaboration with both SGI and Intel will ensure that
U.K. scientists remain at the leading edge of cosmological research."
Paul Shellard, Ph.D., director of the COSMOS supercomputer, added, "The SGI
Altix 3000 system with Itanium 2 chips makes available an entirely new
threshold in scalable shared-memory performance for the U.K. COSMOS
consortium. The rapid time to solution possible using OpenMP shared-memory
programming offers a key competitive advantage in this fast advancing field
driven by new satellite observations and other experiments. Together with
integrated shared filesystems and remote visualization, the state-of-the-art
Altix supercluster will give us the ability to test our mathematical models of
the universe seamlessly against the huge data sets being produced by
cosmological observations."
"Scientific research is constantly at the forefront of technology, pushing
the
boundaries of high-performance computing and demanding higher processing power
with greater scalability," said John Woodget, Intel marketing director,
Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA). "The Itanium Processor Family delivers
new levels of performance to support this kind of complex, data-intensive
operation in both academic and enterprise environments. By combining the high-
throughput functionality of the Itanium 2 architecture with SGI hardware, the
COSMOS team has dramatically upgraded the capability of its computer
infrastructure. Intel's own commitment to development ensures that the Itanium
Processor Family will continue to support the needs of projects such as COSMOS
well into the future."
SGI Altix 3000 systems, launched in January, combine SGI supercomputing
architecture with Intel Itanium 2 processors and the Linux operating system.
Since its launch, it has shattered scalability and performance records. The
new installation at Cambridge University also includes additional graphics
equipment and an upgrade to a CXFS storage system featuring 2GB storage area
network (SAN) and 6TB SGI TP9400.
SGI's Steve Coggins, senior VP, EMEA, commented, "With the help of SGI
Managed
Services, the COSMOS project is able to exploit the full potential of the
combination of visualization, high-performance computing and data management.
We value the continued challenge of meeting the needs of a world-class
organization that is pushing the limits of computational science." By
purchasing Managed Services, the Cosmology Group will benefit from a
customized solution plan for the physical installation, configuration and
testing of SAN equipment and the CXFS server and client software, along with
all the appropriate management software tools. SGI Managed Services offers a
broad range of product-focused services that accelerate productivity and
optimize system performance. For more information, visit
www.sgi.com/services/managed_services, and for further details
about
SGI's
involvement with universities and research labs around the world, visit
www.sgi.com/go/research.
About SGI
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc., is the world's leader in high-
performance computing, visualization and the management of complex data. SGI's
vision is to provide technology that enables the most significant scientific
and creative breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to
aid in brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate or
enabling the transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated
to addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and
creative users. SGI was named on FORTUNE magazine's 2003 list of "Top 100
Companies to Work For." With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered
in Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.
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