ACADEMIA

DOD's High-Performance Computing Modernization Program awards multi-year contract to deploy PBS Professional across supercomputer sites: Altair Engineering today announced that the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) has chosen PBS Professional as the standard workload management solution for its High-Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP). Altair was determined to be the Best Value Source following the Government's evaluation that weighs specified criteria, including management and support; technical functionality; and past performance. The contract was solicited utilizing full- and open-competitive methods combined with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) methods of evaluation, and includes a two-year base period with eight option years. "The Department of Defense maintains a complex network of world-class supercomputer sites, which require an exceptionally robust and reliable workload management solution (WMS)," said Cray J. Henry, director of the DOD HPCMP. "Working with the General Services Administration (GSA), we prepared a comprehensive solicitation that included a plan to transition, a detailed list of technical requirements, and requirements to interface seamlessly with our HPC hardware partners. After a thorough evaluation of all competitive bids, we determined that Altair's proposal represented the best value, and we selected PBS Professional as our standard WMS." Initiated in 1992, the HPCMP mission is to deliver world-class commercial, high-end, high-performance computational capability to the DOD's science, technology, testing and evaluation communities, facilitating the rapid application of advanced technology into superior defense capabilities. The HPCMP puts advanced computing technology in the hands of U.S. forces more quickly, less expensively and with greater certainty of success. The HPCMP serves more than 4,000 scientists and engineers through eight world-class production supercomputer centers, four major shared resource centers (MSRC) and four allocated distribution centers (ADC). The Department of Defense MSRC and ADC sites are each significant supercomputing sites on their own merit, with multiple 20- to 60-teraflop HPC systems at several of the centers. When combined, the HPCMP complex currently has a combined compute power of 315 teraflops, with a 40-percent to 45-percent annual capacity growth. The Altair contract is "linked" to the annual HPCMP Technology Integration TI-XX hardware acquisition process (where XX represents the fiscal year). Altair and the winning TI-XX hardware suppliers will share responsibility for ensuring PBS Professional is fully enabled and successfully deployed on all new hardware acquired through the TI-XX process. PBS Professional is an advanced workload management solution for HPC environments. The software maximizes the utilization of computing resources by intelligently scheduling and managing computational workloads. By increasing the efficiency of the hardware and software resources, PBS Professional reduces total cost of ownership and provides true business value to grid computing customers in a variety of industries. "The Department of Defense HPCMP win is very strategic for Altair," said Michael Humphrey, vice president of Altair's PBS GridWorks business unit. "The fact that the DOD selected Altair for their massive production environment over all competitors, including the incumbent supplier, is a pivotal endorsement. Altair plans to leverage this success with other government organizations and build even stronger relationships with the U.S. hardware manufacturers who participate in the TI-XX process."