OIL & GAS
Writer
Bull's HPC solution optimizes Alcan's research capability
Bull has signed a contract with Alcan - one of the world's leading suppliers of bauxite, alumina, aluminum, innovative products and packaging - to supply a new NovaScale supercomputer. 
The supercomputer is being deployed at the Voreppe Research Center in France, where 250 research staff are developing leading-edge processes for manufacturing using aluminum and products based on aluminum alloys. Their work is especially focused on developing electrolysis and transformation technologies, as well as perfecting a range of solutions and innovative and sustainable products aimed at Alcan's many customers. Bull's solution meets Alcan's requirements perfectly, particularly in terms of service quality, performance, and availability. One of the key factors influencing their decision to choose Bull's solution is the responsiveness of the company's experts working at its HPC Center of Expertise. "We are delighted by Alcan's decision. It reaffirms Bull's ability to define and implement high-performance computing solutions that are adapted to the needs of manufacturers that want to accelerate their capacity for innovation and reduce production costs," explained Benoît Hallez, Director of Bull's HPC Business Unit. Power combined with service quality The Alcan Research Center wanted to invest in a more powerful High-Performance Computing infrastructure that was also more scalable and secure, with the aim of reducing not only processing times, but also maintenance costs, the floor space occupied by the supercomputer and power consumption. The new computing system will be capable of executing 40 calculations simultaneously, for business or proprietary applications alike. The cluster Bull proposed comprises ten NovaScale R440 computing nodes and two NovaScale R460 interchangeable service nodes, each fitted with two Intel Xeon dual-core processors, linked by an Infiniband interconnection network, and with access to a disk storage system offering a global storage capacity of 2.3TB.
The supercomputer is being deployed at the Voreppe Research Center in France, where 250 research staff are developing leading-edge processes for manufacturing using aluminum and products based on aluminum alloys. Their work is especially focused on developing electrolysis and transformation technologies, as well as perfecting a range of solutions and innovative and sustainable products aimed at Alcan's many customers. Bull's solution meets Alcan's requirements perfectly, particularly in terms of service quality, performance, and availability. One of the key factors influencing their decision to choose Bull's solution is the responsiveness of the company's experts working at its HPC Center of Expertise. "We are delighted by Alcan's decision. It reaffirms Bull's ability to define and implement high-performance computing solutions that are adapted to the needs of manufacturers that want to accelerate their capacity for innovation and reduce production costs," explained Benoît Hallez, Director of Bull's HPC Business Unit. Power combined with service quality The Alcan Research Center wanted to invest in a more powerful High-Performance Computing infrastructure that was also more scalable and secure, with the aim of reducing not only processing times, but also maintenance costs, the floor space occupied by the supercomputer and power consumption. The new computing system will be capable of executing 40 calculations simultaneously, for business or proprietary applications alike. The cluster Bull proposed comprises ten NovaScale R440 computing nodes and two NovaScale R460 interchangeable service nodes, each fitted with two Intel Xeon dual-core processors, linked by an Infiniband interconnection network, and with access to a disk storage system offering a global storage capacity of 2.3TB.