Supercomputing framework at IFCA
Welcome to the support pages on supercomputing at IFCA.
Send any question to res_support@ifca.unican.es
INTRO: Why supercomputing at IFCA
Supercomputing is more specific than High Performance Computing.
IFCA entered the supercomputing field with the installation of the ALTAMIRA node of the Spanish Supercomputing Network (Red Española de Supercomputacion = RES) coordinated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
You can find the information about the RES here, and about ALTAMIRA here
WHAT IS CHANGING (March 2012)
The University of Cantabria within the Campus of Excellence got funds in the Innocampus call to renew the supercomputing node.
The new node will be installed along Q2-2012 at IFCA, and will have a raw capacity of around 50 Tflops and 2500 Intel Sandybridge cores (E5-2670) with 4GB/core and FDR Infiniband interconnection. Access to fast storage will be also offered, offfering typical capacities in the order 10-500 Tb to projects.
The node will offer 25% of its capacity to the RES open calls.
The node will support University researchers, but will be also open to external projects.
IN PARTICULAR, COLLABORATION WITH RESEARCH DIVISIONS OF OTHER INSTITUTIONS AND COMPANIES IS WELCOME
FIELDS WHERE SUPERCOMPUTING IS USEFUL
The European EESI project http://www.eesi-project.eu/ has recently analyzed the supercomputing requirements in many research fields.
The following reports are available:
Engineering: EESI_Industria.pdf
Clima-Geo: EESI_Clima.pdf
Physics-Chemistry: EESI_Fisica.pdf
Bio-Health: EESI_Bio.pdf
EESI also produced a report about initiatives through the world, and linking to relevant documents like:
USA DoE, Office of Science report on "Opportunities and Challenges of Exascale Computing" _Exaescale_report.pdf
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