Case Studies - Public Sector
(Universities and Government Laboratories etc)
Customer : University of Southampton
Requirements: A HPC system built in 2004 was in use by the University’s base of engineering and science researchers. It was generally regarded as ‘passed its best’ by the research community and the IT team. In 2009, with the aim of delivering high levels of processing power to potentially hundreds of academics and users, at the lowest deployment and running cost and with the greatest energy efficiency possible, the University made the important decision to replace its 3-year old HPC system.
Solution : Custom-designed, built, rapidly implemented in just 1 week, tested and configured for the University by, the University is now live with a new, much more powerful HPC system founded on IBM server and storage technology.
Results submitted to the June 2009 Top 500 List found the HPC system ranked as the fastest academic HPC system in England, the fastest Windows based HPC in Europe and the UK’s ‘greenest’ academic HPC system in the 2009 Green500 List.
Research problems which could take months or even years when processed previously can now be completed in significantly less time.
Testimonial : Read more…
Customer: The Mike Barnsley Centre for Climate Research, Technium Pembrokeshire
Requirements : The impact of human’s activity on global climate is profound. However, researchers struggle to ‘virtually’ model key components of the Earth system and planning for future environmental change remains a challenge. An HPC system at the Mike Barnsley Centre for Climate Research was essential to enhance Swansea University researchers’ contributions to climatic change science.
Solution: In October 2008, the Centre went live with the ‘Blue Ice’ HPC System. Working in close partnership with IBM, OCF was responsible for the overall design, implementation and ongoing support of the HPC system.
The unique design consists of 80 IBM HS21 Blades running dual quad core processors – totalling 640 cores, and 8 CELL processor blades with Voltaire Infiniband interconnect. In addition, 5 DCV workstations and 4 CUBE displays provide visualization capabilities to the facility. There is 10TB of IBM DS4700 storage with IBM GPFS (General Parallel File System) a high-performance shared-disk file system that can provide fast, reliable data access from all nodes in a homogenous or heterogeneous cluster.
The HPC system enables:
- more accurate features in virtual models; enables researchers to link the individual components of climate change to see how the components affect one another and enables researchers to run different models, multiple times
- ranks as the most energy efficient HPC system in Wales
- 300 times more powerful than the average desktop PC, with 100 times more disc space
- is capable of running 10,000 "model years" per week
Testimonial : Read more…
Customer : University of Westminster
Requirements : An Upgarde to the previous 32-node High Performance Compute Cluster (HPCC) with a new 96-node HPCC.
Solution : OCF implemented a new HPCC which consists of 82 IBM System X 3455's - 328 Cores of AMD Opteron – using Cisco Infiniband high speed interconnects, supported with IBM GPFS (General Parallel File System) and IBM DS4200 Storage Controllers. The hardware was delivered to site on time by OCF’s distribution partner, Interface Solutions (ISI).
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Customer : Warwick University Centre for Scientific Computing
Requirements : A large Compute Cluster, funded via a SRIF3 award, to facilitate computationally driven research across multiple scientific and engineering disciplines
Solution : 960 core LINUX cluster based on Intel Woodcrest dual core processors incorporating rear door heat exchangers on the racks, a gigabit Ethernet management network, a full Voltaire InfiniBand high performance network, 16TB of GPFS SAN storage utilizing the IBM DS4700 controller, a full cluster management system based upon IBM CSM, compilers from Intel and PGI, development tools from Allinea (DDT and OPT), PBSpro scheduling software and a full integration service from OCF. The centre was challenged by heat and power restrictions and the system has been designed to maximize the capabilities of the system within strict environmental parameters. The system was phased in to coincide with data center improvements and became fully operational in April 2008.
Customer : University of Reading Advanced Computing and Emerging Technologies Centre
Requirements : To provide the most powerful computer for academic research in the UK, providing reliable and powerful resources to a diverse range of academic researchers including air pollution modeling, climate change, financial modeling, drug discovery, computational biology etc.
Solution : OCF designed and integrated an upgrade to a previous system supplied in 2005. The new system consists of 2800 IBM Power PC processor cores configured on 700 IBM JS21 blades, with a full high performance network from Myrinet and 60tb of GPFS SAN storage utilizing the IBM DS4700 controller. The system, when installed in mid 2007 was the 36th largest computer on the TOP500 list and the fastest system in the UK devoted to academic research.
Press Release : OCF Press Release read more...
Customer : Southampton University Information Systems Services
Requirements : Design and integration of a large centralized compute facility for multi disciplinary research groups to be implemented over a number of years to take advantage of technical innovations over the life of the project.
Solution : OCF, together with its partners IBM and AMD have implemented over a period of three years a large cluster (named iridis) which now consists of over 1000 AMD Opteron cores , a full Gigabit Ethernet network and a subset of the nodes connected by a Myrinet High Performance network. The system is managed via IBM’s CSM cluster management tools and has a utilization rate of well over 95%.
Testimonial : Read More...
Customer : University of Surrey Department of Computing
Requirements : High Performance Compute Cluster, funded via a SRIF 3 award, to advance research in areas such as multimedia security, complex, intelligent and adaptive systems and applications for the financial services industry.
Solution : 128 core LINUX IBM blade center solution featuring Intel processors, 30tb of GPFS SAN storage utilizing the IBM DS4500 controller, a Myrinet high performance interconnect, a full cluster management system based on IBM CSM, a gigabit management network and development tools from Allinea and PGI and a full integration and support service from OCF.
Press Release : OCF Press Relase read more...
Customer : Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Centre
Requirements : A compute facility to enable the Centre to take maximum advantage of its significant investment in MRI and MEG scanning and imaging technology.
Solution : OCF, together with its partner IBM, designed and implemented a 460 core system consisting of 75 IBM e326m dual core dual processor servers and 40 IBM Intellistation dual core dual processor workstations, all of which were based upon AMD Opteron processor technology, together with a 50tb GPFS storage system. A comprehensive package of collaboration measures were also included in the project including extensive support for technical updates and marketing and access to similar projects being undertaken by partners and customers of OCF and IBM.
Press Release : OCF Press release read more...
Customer: Bangor CAST Technium
Requirements : To provide the CAST consortium with infrastructure, support and collaboration to further its aims of stimulating the socio-economic enhancement of the North West Wales area, an important facet of this being the commercialization of technology developed at the University of Wales, Bangor with particular focus on the division of Computer Science in the School of Informatics. The three major relevant technology strands are Visualisation, Broadband Communications and Software Engineering.
Solution : OCF, together with its technology partners IBM and Fakespace (now Mechdyne) put together an outstanding package of compute and visualization hardware and software including:
- A visualization cluster of IBM Opteron workstations utilizing DCV technology and a Voltaire Infiniband interconnect
- An immersive visualization system incorporating dual Sony 4k projectors( the first in the UK) with both active and passive stereo displaying to a front projected power wall
- A 34 core IBM e326m opteron linux cluster with IBM CSM management and Voltaire Infiniband high performance interconnect
- 10tb fibre channel SAN storage utilizing the IBM DS4300 controller
- Early access to the IBM Cell processor technology
- A full suite of management and development tools
Customer : The University of Salford Thinking Laboratory
Requirements : A full Immersive environment incorporating a stereo projection system, a fast image generation system, workstations, Access Grid system and full display environment. The Visualisation system as designed is to be used by many different research groups in an Advanced Collaboration Environment.
Solution : OCF, together with its partners Fakespace Systems, IBM and Orad, designed and implemented a complete system incorporating the following key components:
- A visualization environment incorporating a dual channel Powerwall, a number of Plasma displays and a pair of Christie Mirage projectors for active stereo display, together with VHS, DVD and centralized control systems
- A visualization cluster of IBM workstations with Mellanox Infiniband high performance interconnect and Orad Graphics acceleration cards
- An Access Grid system
- Numerous PC’s and workstations to facilitate system collaboration.
Customer : Sheffield Hallam University
Requirements : This department has a small but growing requirement for computer equipment to aid its research projects and required a partner with whom it could work with confidence to consistently upgrade its facilities as and when funding became available.
Solution : OCF has been working with Sheffield Hallam since 2003 and during that time has supplied and upgraded numerous clustered systems based upon a range of technologies ( Intel, AMD, Dolphin, Voltaire, Mellanox etc) and a range of manufacturers (IBM, Tyan, Iwill etc).
Testimonal : Read more...
