Nautilus
Z Joint Cell Competence Center
We proudly announce the new Nautilus supercomputer, which will soon be available to ICM's HPC Center users as development system for hybrid computer architectures. Nautilus is based on IBM's PowerXCell8i processors and is installed in a little more than two standard computer racks. Apart from the relatively large compute power reaching 24 TFlops this system is characterized by very low power consumption (in terms of performance per Watt). Nautilus is still undergoing various tests, but the most recent performance and efficiency results show that it could be the most ecological supercomputer in the world.
Architecture details:
- 112 IBM BladeCenter QS22 compute nodes. Each QS22 blade features:
- two PowerXCell8i processors achieving more than 200 GFlops theoretical peak performance in double precision
- 8GB RAM
- 2-port DDR Infiniband adapter
- Voltaire Grid Director ISR 2012 Multi-Service Switch
- 120 ports
- fully non-blocking communication
Nautilus is part of a collaboration between ICM and IBM focusing on novel computing architectures and programming tools. This particular system is treated by both partners as an opportunity to test new concepts and features. Parts of the system were provided by IBM to further support this joint effort. One of the first technical prototype activity was working with DDR InfiniBand on the QS22 blades as well as tuning the PowerXCell8i processors to operate at a clock-speed of 4Ghz which results in further increasing the theoretical peak performance of the cluster to 30 TFlops. Future activities currently planned will be related to heterogeneous systems in which PowerXCell8i processors are used as accelerators for traditional x86 based nodes (ie. AMD Opteron based BladeCenter LS21 blades).
While several scientific applications making use of the Cell BE Architecture have already been in use at ICM, additional codes are currently in development. The main research areas planned for Nautilus include:
- computer visualization, medical imaging
- astrophysics
- bioinformatics
- fluid flow simulations
- weather forecasting
Nautilus has been ranked at 221 position in the latest Top500 list. Read more..
Nautilus has been ranked as No. 1 in the latest Green500 list of the most ecologic supercomputers in the world. Read more..
HPCwire describe Nautilus and its Green500 result. Read more..
More information and details:
Maciej Cytowski
ICM, University of Warsaw
ul. Pawińskiego 5a
02-160 Warsaw
+48-22-874-91-00
m.cytowski@icm.edu.pl
