ENGINEERING

• Researchers rely on standardized High Performance Cluster (HPC) solutions to provide fast, cost-effective computational power, improve productivity and analysis when solving the world’s most complex scientific problems.
• The HPC market in total (including servers, storage, software, networks and other products) was valued at $19 billion in 2008.

Simplifying Ground Breaking Research

CERN is using Dell technology among other IT suppliers to process and manage data with two of its largest experiments (Compact Muon Solenoid CMS, and the Large Hadron Collider beauty experiment LHCb) and at its Central IT site. Dell HPC-related systems and solutions are critical to the Trigger and Data Acquisition (TDAQ) environment of CERN, which re-assembles and filters particle events data coming directly from the Large Hadron Collider’s (LHC) detectors.

• The CMS detector will assist researchers in unveiling some of the Universe’s deepest mysteries, recording key information about particles emerging from high-energy collisions in the LHC;
• The LHCb uses specialized detectors to analyze collisions within the LHC in relation to antimatter.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) relies on Dell HPC clusters in its database infrastructure to facilitate a wide range of scientific discoveries from unlocking the secrets of the cosmos to new forms of Green energy.

• Dell servers support critical calculations for scientists analyzing data from the world’s highest-energy laser system at its National Ignition Facility.
• Powered by Dell servers and Intel processors, LLNL’s advanced technology test bed called Hyperion powers vital research in areas like security, energy and climate change for the U.S. Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) missions, from national and homeland security to energy, climate change and other global challenges.

Driving HPC Energy and Cost Efficiencies

• Like many large research facilities, CERN has a challenge with power management. Their current Central IT Computing Centre site cannot grow beyond 2.5 megawatts and as they close in on this limitation they favor energy-efficient solutions.
• The Dell Energy Smart architecture using Intel Xeon processors, offered in 11th generation Dell PowerEdge servers, supports real-time monitoring and control and uses extensive platform characterization and advanced features such as Dell’s Active Power Controller to help optimize platform-level tradeoffs between performance and power consumption.
• Research labs are also concerned about Total Cost of Ownership. Dell’s 11G infrastructure can consolidate from nine servers to one - and is cost-efficient in terms of power consumption, software licensing, maintenance, facilities and data-center footprints.

“Dell began working with CERN IT in December 2007. Since then, Dell has become a trusted collaborator of CERN through their account management, virtual team implication and demonstrating flexibility and adaptability for CERN IT’s standard processes. Dell has proven to be truly ‘CERN oriented,’ providing ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking in their efforts to adapt their standard processes to make them fit into CERN’s structure and own processes,” said Dr. Helge Meinhard, Technical Coordinator for Servers and Storage Purchases, CERN.

“The National Ignition Facility laser fusion energy experiments we are preparing require reliable HPC systems for efficient, scalable analytics, and predictive simulations. The science and engineering R&D our Lab conducts also demands solutions for making computing and storage more accessible to a larger community. It is through our partnerships with industry leaders such as Dell that we are able to meet these demands by rapidly evolving our computational environment," said Dr. Mark Seager, Head of Advanced Computing Technology, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

“We’re pleased to partner with researchers discovering and solving some of the world's most pressing challenges using high performance computing. And, we have the full suite of off-the-shelf energy-efficient standards-based solutions throughout the HPC ecosystem - networking, storage, interconnects, tools and middleware, to help them, said John Mullen, Vice President and General Manager, Education, State and Local Government, Dell.