New Systems bring 17,500 cores to ARL DSRC
The ARL DSRC is pleased to announce the acquisition of three SGI Altix ICE linux clusters. These three systems are part of the DoD's High Performance Computing Modernization Program's (HPCMP) Technology Insertion for 2009 (TI-09). The HPCMP provides the supercomputer services, high-speed network communications, and computational science expertise that enables the Defense laboratories and test centers to conduct a wide range of focused research, development, and test activities. This partnership puts advanced technology in the hands of U.S. forces more quickly, less expensively, and with a greater certainty of success.
All three systems use the 2.8 GHz Intel Nehalem processor. The Nehalem is Intel's next generation microarchitecture that uses 45 nanometer circuit technology for more efficiency and another technology called QuickPath to improve distribution of data to and from the four cores contained on each chip.
The SGI Altix ICE is a blade-type platform that uses an Infiniband interconnect fabric in a hypercube configuration that allows scaling to thousands of processors.
The first is a 10,752 core system (2,688 Quad core processors) with 32 Tb system memory and 600 Tb of local disk storage. The Second smaller system will have 6,656 cores with 52.2 Tb system memory and 400 Tb of local storage. The third 96 core system will be a test and development system that is used to support the other two larger systems by providing a non-production system to test configurations, applications, and tuning procedures.
These new systems will enhance the Center's ability to support a greater range of computational problems with more complexity and will increase the total processing power to over 350 TeraFlops (Trillion floating point operations per second). The systems are due to arrive in June and are expected to be available to users by September.