Supercomputing at IFCA

Welcome to the support pages on supercomputing at IFCA.

Please, send any specific question to marco@ifca.unican.es

Why supercomputing at IFCA

IFCA entered the supercomputing field with the installation in 2007 of the ALTAMIRA node of the University of Cantabria within the Spanish Supercomputing Network (Red Española de Supercomputacion = RES) coordinated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC). The node systems were installed at IFCA datacenter room, and its operation supported by IFCA team in a joint effort with ATC group. The first ALTAMIRA node system was a cluster of 256 IBM PowerPC JS20 servers, with a total of 512 cores, part of the first Mare Nostrum supercomputer installed previously at BSC. This system made into the top500.org systems in 2007, and operated succesfully within the RES until 2012.

The ALTAMIRA node was upgraded in June 2012 with the installation of a new system at IFCA datacenter room.

Our supercomputing services also include support for large and high-performance data storage, advanced network support, and adaptation and optimization of parallel applications.

ALTAMIRA SUPERCOMPUTING NODE AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CANTABRIA

The supercomputing node at the University of Cantabria is named ALTAMIRA.

Its use is offered as part of the Santander Supercomputing Services within the Scientific-Technical Services at University of Cantabria.

The current systems in the ALTAMIRA node include:

-An IBM idataplex cluster installed in June 2012, with 158 dx360m4 servers, each one with 2 Intel Xeon SB processors with 8 cores each at 2.6 GHZ (E5-2670), for a total of more than 2500 cores, interconnected with Infiniband FDR, with a power over 50 Tflops. Each node has 64GB RAM and 500GB HD. Additionally, the system has a login node and a management node, with identical characteristics. The cluster specific name is "Ojancano".

-The idataplex cluster includes also 5 dx360m3 GPU servers, each one with 2 nVidia Tesla cards with a total of 1024 cores each.

-An IBM bladecenter HS21 integrating 11 IBM ps702 blade servers, each one with 2 IBM Power7 processors, running at 3 GHz, with a total of 356 cores and more than 4 Tflops of peak power.

-A GPFS storage system served by 4 IBM x3550 servers, connected by Infiniband to the cluster, and serving up to 1 Petabyte of storage from a D5000 IBM FC storage system. The GPFS filesystem also allows access through Ethernet to additional storage space.

HOW TO ACCESS TO SANTANDER SUPERCOMPUTING SERVICES

Santander Supercomputing Services are available for:

-Researchers at University of Cantabria, follow this link.

-Researchers in Spain, through the Spanish Supercomputing Network, RES, coordinated by BSC, follow this link.

-New research projects, with institutions of with companies, follow this link.

Please, acknowledge the Usage Terms.

USING SANTANDER SUPERCOMPUTING SERVICES

If you already have access granted for execution of applications, see the ALTAMIRA Userguide.

If you need support for adaptation of applications, or need more information, please contact ssc@unican.es