SYSTEMS

Fujitsu Wins Order from Institute for Cosmic Ray Research of University of Tokyo for Data Analysis System for Neutrino Research -System to be used in neutrino research using Super-Kamiokande detector for observation of cosmic particles: Fujitsu Limited today announced that it has won an order from the Kamioka Observatory of the Institute for Cosmic Ray Research (ICRR) of the University of Tokyo in an open tendering, to supply a new data analysis system that analyzes the structure of outer space by utilizing a cosmic-particle observation detector known as Super-Kamiokande.The new system will accumulate and analyze data regarding neutrinos, based on neutrino observation data from Super-Kamiokande. The new system will consist mainly of the following from Fujitsu: a PC cluster of PRIMERGY BX620 S3 blade servers, a PRIMEQUEST mission-critical Intel Architecture (IA) server, the ETERNUS storage system, and Parallelnavi SRFS for Linux version 1.0, a high-speed distribution file system. The PC cluster is designed to achieve computing performance levels that are 35 times greater than the existing system. The new system is scheduled to be operational in March 2007. Kamioka Observatory uses Super-Kamiokande- the world's largest water Cherenkov detector for cosmic particles, installed underground in the Kamioka region of Hida city, located in Gifu prefecture of central Japan-to capture particles known as neutrinos, a type of cosmic rays that are perpetually falling from outer space to earth. The observatory is one of the world's foremost research facilities that conducts research of outer space and elementary particles, based on observation data of neutrinos. Kamioka Observatory is known for a significant number of past scientific findings, including discovering the finite mass of neutrinos. The new data analysis system will be closely related to the Super-Kamiokande detector. Partially due to the fact that neutrinos are very difficult to capture, observation by Super-Kamiokande is perpetual, 24 hours a day for 365 days a year - thus, there is a need to continuously collect and analyze the observation data as well. The observation data collected daily, together with the data after analytic processing, results in 160 GB of data accumulation per day. In addition, re-analysis of observed data for several months or years at a time all at once is also conducted. The existing system has already accumulated 550 TB of data, but due to improvements in detector performance it is anticipated that there will be a significant increase in data volume, therefore leading to a greater volume of data analysis, and thus necessitated a need for higher capabilities of the data analysis system in order to handle more data, and higher abilities to transfer data to be analyzed. In considering a new system, in addition to existing operations, Kamioka Observatory took into consideration such factors as the need to be able to transfer the system without interrupting the observations currently being run, transfer of data currently stored in a magnetic tape library to a high-density disk storage system, sufficient CPU performance, high-speed networking, high-speed high-density data storage, and whether 24-hour quick-response support could be provided. As a result of the open tendering, Fujitsu's system consisting mainly of the following Fujitsu products was selected: a PC cluster of PRIMERGY BX620 S3 blade servers, a PRIMEQUEST mission critical IA server, ETERNUS storage system, and Parallelnavi SRFS for Linux v1.0" high-speed distributed file system. Computation server: PC cluster consisting of 270 "PRIMERGY BX620 S3" blade servers (540 processors, 1080 cores). The combined power of 540 processors and 1080 cores enables computing performance that is 35 times that of the existing system. Storage: ETERNUS 4000 mid-range disk array and the ETERNUS LT270 tape library. Analyzed data that is frequently accessed is stored on disks in ETERNUS 4000, while observation data is stored in cartridge tapes in the tape library ETERNUS LT720. By using different storage methods for depending on the data purpose and needs, the system enables task efficiency. File System Management Server: Three PRIMEQUEST 520 mission-critical IA servers Parallelnavi SRFS for Linux v1.0 distributed file system is embedded, thereby enabling high-speed transfer of large volumes of data. This server realizes a high-reliability file system and high performance that is ideal for the science and technology computation community. File Transfer Software: Parallelnavi SRFS for Linux v1.0" high-speed distribution file system. In order to support simultaneous access all at once from aligned servers consisting of 540 processors and 1,080 cores, this software will enable data transfer performance of 750 megabytes (MB) per second, roughly twice that of the existing system. This will enable the system to realize efficiency of analysis tasks, as volume of analysis data continues to grow.