High-Performance Computing (HPC) Infrastructure
HPC Hub
A High-Performance Computing (HPC) centre is about more than just supercomputers:
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The ICHEC HPC Hub is a shared space where users are welcome to work with our staff. Find out more here. |
High-Performance Computing (HPC) Systems
ICHEC currently provides the following supercomputers:
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| System | Schrödinger | Stokes | Stoney |
| Service | Capability | National | National |
| Manufacturer / Model |
IBM Blue Gene/P | SGI Altix ICE 8200EX | Bull Novascale R422-E2 |
| CPU | PowerPC 450 | Intel Xeon E5462 | Intel Xeon X5560 |
| CPU Clock | 850 MHz | 2.8 GHz | 2.8 GHz |
| CPU Cores | 4096 | 2560 | 512 |
| Memory | 2048 GB | 5120 GB | 3072 GB |
| Peak Performance |
13.93 TFlop | 28.67 TFlop | 5.73 TFlop |
| Linpack Performance |
11.11 TFlop | 25.11 TFlop | 5.14 TFlop |
| Interconnect | Blue Gene Tree / Torus |
ConnectX Infiniband (DDR) |
ConnectX Infiniband (DDR) |
| Storage (Formatted Capacity) |
33 TB | 84 TB | 21 TB |
| Launched | Jan 2008 | Dec 2008 | Jul 2009 |
Network Connectivity
HPC often involves very large data sets. To avoid a data bottleneck all of the ICHEC systems are connected to the HEAnet national research network, typically at 1Gbit. This facilitates fast data transfer internally between the ICHEC systems, to and from the member institutions networks, and externally to resources on other networks.
Researchers with particularly large data sets should note that their member institution's network may not be designed to cope with these traffic volumes.
Decommissioned Systems
Largely due to the high electrical costs involved in running HPC systems, it is not economic to keep them in production indefinitely even if they are still working reliably. It is cheaper to replace them with new systems with up to date processors etc. in the long term. To date ICHEC has decommissioned 3 HPC platforms, Walton, Hamilton and Lanczos. Some details of these machines can be found here.