SCIENCE

By Uwe Harms -- Immediately after the start of operations in Jülich, HLRS Stuttgart (High-Performance Computer Center) presented its decision for the next generation supercomputer. It is based on a NEC vector supercomputer and an AMD/Intel IA-32 and IA-64 cluster. The vector computer will have a peak performance of nearly 13 TeraFlop/s the peak peformance of all the systems lies in the range of 15 TeraFlop/s. The first part, 6 NEC SX-6 nodes with 8 processors each and a peak performance of about 600 GigaFlop/s will be installed in March 2003, the last stage in beginning of 2005. As the HLRS is directed to engineering applications, because of the research at University Stuttgart and of the industry participation (e.g. T-Systems, Porsche and interested enterprises). The universities in Baden-Württemberg cooperate in HPC with a specific connection to University Karlsruhe. Both computer centers coordinate their resources. . All the old NEC SX-4 systems at HLRS have been removed. In March 2004 the first step will be realised, six supercomputers with SX-6 nodes. Each consists of 8 vector processors with a peak performance of 93,3 GigaFlop/s which sums up to about 0,6 TeraFlop/s. Early 2005 the SX-6 successor will be installed in the new computer room, which probably will be announced in end of 2004. It consists of 64 plus 8 nodes with a peak performance of 12.67 TeraFlop/s and an aggregated memory of 9.8 TeraByte. Professor Michael Resch expects an application performance of 2 to 4 TeraFlop/s. Its peak performance is a third of the legendary Earth Simulator. In 2./3. quarter of 2003 HLRS installs the AMD/Intel IA-32/IA-64 cluster. Makoto Tsukakoshi is the new German and European Head of NEC High Performance Computing Europe (HPCE) GmbH in Düsseldorf. His HPC offering covers the SX-series of vector computers, Intel's Itanium based TX-series and NEC cluster systems based on AMD and Intel processors. His main task will be the solution business on the hardware base. Actually HPCE has 90 employees with offices in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Lugano and Milan. The Competence Center for Linux Technology as well as the Center for Optimising and Porting of Application Software is located in Stuttgart. http://www.hpce.nec.com http://www.hlrs.de Uwe Harms