ACADEMIA

CSCS is cutting the cost and risk of its world-class computing resources with uninterruptable power supply (UPS) solutions from GE. Switzerland's supercomputers help researchers better understand earthquakes, cardiovascular dynamics and a host of other critical topics. In the event of a power grid disruption, GE technology will switch to battery back-up power--keeping the center up and running until power is restored.

GE's new UPS system, battery storage and commissioning services also will reduce the costs and environmental impact of high performance computing. The system's efficiency will save the center nearly 800,000 kWh of electricity each year--an annual cost savings of approximately US$80,000.

"High performance computing produces ever increasing quantities of data. In order to ensure this data and mission critical services such as the Swiss weather forecast are safeguarded even during power outages that affect the supercomputers, it is vital that critical components are protected by an uninterrupted power supply," said Ladina Gilly, associate director of CSCS. "GE has provided us with a convincing solution that also helps us reduce operating costs and increase energy efficiency."

The solution includes redundant architecture, emergency generation and battery backup that keep the center's critical components on task through temporary power outages or shortages.

"Supercomputing infrastructure is a power-intensive activity that does not tolerate errors. Terms like Teraflops and Petaflops per second may be foreign to the computing most of us do, but this high performance computation is vital to universities and researchers," said Fabio Mandioni, senior sales manager at GE's Digital Energy business. "As energy-hungry technologies grow, we're also moving our energy technologies forward to find solutions that improve how we power progress. UPS systems are a good example of GE staying a step ahead."

The center's current computers have a calculating capacity of 211.51 Teraflops per second. New computers coming online in 2012 will have Petaflop (10(15)) performance.

UPS installation will be completed before the end of 2011.