Graphics processing installation to boost Argonne's Blue Gene P visualization capabilities

(PhysOrg.com) -- The IBM Blue Gene/P Intrepid at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), located at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, will soon have the data analytics and visualization capability to complement its distinction as the fastest computer in the world for open science and the third fastest overall computer in the world.

Argonne awarded GraphStream, Inc., Belmont , Calif. , a contract that will help to make data analytics and visualization at this scale possible through the world's largest installation of NVIDIA Quadro Plex S4 external graphics processing units (GPU). This new supercomputer installation, nicknamed Eureka , will allow researchers to explore and visualize the data they produce with Intrepid. The powerful installation will offer 104 dual quad core servers with 208 Quadro FX5600 GPUs in the S4s.

"During a massive computation on Intrepid, torrents of data can be unleashed onto the multi-petabyte parallel file system," ALCF acting director Pete Beckman said. "For example, in just a little over a minute, Intrepid can produce the equivalent of 1,000 DVDs of file data. Eureka will be used to peer ever deeper into scientist's data, from simulations of the electrical signals of the human heart to exploding supernova. Aided by Eureka , scientists will plow through the tidal wave of data produced by Intrepid faster than ever before, searching for new insights."

Most applications that run on large-scale systems like Intrepid generate huge volumes of data that represent the results of the calculations. An essential tool for understanding those results after the run has completed is to be able to explore rapidly the output data and convert it to a visual representation. To do so at the scale required by Intrepid applications requires a system with Eureka's power.

GraphStream, a supplier of scalable computer systems, will use the NVIDIA Quadro Plex (S4) visual computing system as the base graphics building block.

"With the addition of Eureka, the GraphStream/NVIDIA collaboration to provide the world's most advanced scalable visual computing systems now extends to the sites of the three most powerful supercomputers in the world," said Craig Dunwoody, CEO of GraphStream. "Using the NVIDIA Quadro Plex S4 visual computing system as the base graphics building block, Eureka will deliver a quantum leap in visual compute density, enabling breakthrough levels of productivity and capability in visualization and data analysis."

"Argonne National Laboratory's adoption of NVIDIA Quadro Plex visual computing solutions for their groundbreaking IBM Blue Gene/P supercomputer speaks volumes to the importance placed today on the role of visualization in scientific research and analytics," said Jeff Brown, general manager of the professional solutions business at NVIDIA. "The close partnership between NVIDIA and the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility has been key to this landmark installation. We are extremely excited to see the impact that GPU technologies will have on the quality and pace of the scientific research carried out there."

The cost-effective approach being used takes four very high-end graphics cards and places them in a 1U "pizza box." A very dense configuration, this solution handles all the power and cooling issues associated with the graphics cards. An alternative configuration using 4U servers with two cards each would take 10.5 racks to match the same number of graphics cards that the proposed approach provides in just four racks.

"This addition to the ALCF's high-end computing platform will provide a vital link between simulation and analysis by allowing scientists to probe and interrogate their data in an interactive manner," said Paul Fischer, a computational scientist at Argonne , who conducts reactor core hydrodynamics research on the Blue Gene/P.

The ALCF's Blue Gene/P Intrepid provides resources for the DOE's Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program), which supports computationally intensive projects from industry, scientific researchers and research organizations.

The ALCF is a leadership-class computing facility that enables the research and development community to make innovative and high-impact science and engineering breakthroughs. Argonne operates the ALCF for the DOE Office of Science as part of the larger DOE Leadership Computing Facility strategy that is organized by the DOE Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research. DOE leads the world in providing the most capable civilian supercomputers for science.

Technical information

The base server building block is the SuperMicro 6015-UR. The S4 attaches to a server on either side of it, forming a “sandwich.” To the servers, it appears as if they have two Quadro FX5600 graphics cards inside of them. While there are small system disks in the server, all of the data comes from the large storage system over the network.

Economical, low-latency modular switches represent the heart of the data-management system. The nine-switch complex supports up to 2,048 connections, each of which simultaneously exchanges data at roughly 1 billion bytes per second. The storage system offers a bank of more than 10,000 disk drives that will send and receive data from the Blue Gene/P's more than 100,000 processors. Altogether, this system can deliver nearly 80 billion bytes per second to and from the disk—the equivalent of transferring the content of 100 full CDs every second.

Provided by Argonne National Laboratory

New Lithium Ion Batteries With Industry's Highest Level of Energy Density

Sony Corporation announces the new line-up of lithium ion batteries, with industry's highest level of energy density, responding to the needs for high capacity and large current in secondary batteries for mobile products. Shipment will start from December 2004 onwards.

Accomplishment of higher capacities in secondary batteries continue to be required from the market, due to higher performance and enhanced features in mobile products such as note PCs, digital video cameras and mobile phones. At Sony, commercialization of the world's first high power density, small size, light weight and long life lithium ion battery was announced in 1991 and, in 1999, lithium ion polymer battery with flexibility in shape and enhanced safety was announced, further responding to such needs. As a result, the world-wide market size of lithium ion batteries (including lithium ion polymer batteries) has grown to a market of 1.2 Billion units.

In the cylindrical lithium ion battery and the lithium ion polymer battery announced today, industry's highest level of energy density has been accomplished, enabling long hours of operation in mobile products.
In the cylindrical lithium ion battery, , in a cylindrical standard size of diameter 18mm and height of 65mm standard size, maintaining the same level of charging/discharging characteristics, industry's highest level of high capacity with 2550mAh (which is 6% increase from the conventional battery) has been accomplished, further adding power (i.e. "Stamina") to the operation of note PCs and digital video cameras requiring high power.
In the Lithium ion polymer battery, , characteristics such as high freedom in the ease of product design (in which the battery is to be used) and high level of safety from the polymer construction have been maintained and 830mAh (9%increase from Sony's conventional model, with the same size) have been realized, supporting long hours of operation in small portable products such as mobile phones.

In addition, targeting the expansion of business in the mobile phone market as well as expansion of lithium ion battery market, new models, the S Pack and V Cell, VT Cell Series are introduced.
S Pack is a lithium ion polymer battery pack dedicated to mobile phone use, where high efficiency is realized in a limited spacing from the convergence of the two technologies, lithium ion polymer and packaging.
In the V Cell and VT Cell Series, the challenge of large current discharge has been accomplished, enabling use of lithium ion batteries in power tools, cleaners, motor assisted bicycle where lithium ion batteries were not used in the past, leading to market expansion of high-power cylindrical lithium ion batteries.

Sony will continue making progress on technology development of batteries with respect to various aspects, such as safety, reliability in high performance, high capacity and consciousness to the environment, and by introducing new lithium ion battery line-up Sony will target to expand its battery business as well as the market.

• Main Characteristics of industry's maximum capacity Cylindrical Lithium Ion (G8 Series)
From the change to 'Can' and the cathode structure, high level of charging has become possible, leading to 6% increase* in capacity compared to conventional battery. Also, due to the fact that the change is focused on structural changes, the curve of discharge is negligible compared to the conventional cell, enabling usage of the in the same battery pack as the conventional one.
*2550mAH (comparison with conventional cell:2400mAH)

• Main Characteristics of industry's maximum capacity Lithium Ion Polymer (A8 Series)
By slimming of the external structure, 9% increase of the capacity has been accomplished, compared to the conventional battery. As it is of a higher capacity when compared to a same size rectangular lithium ion battery, it is appropriate for new generation mobile phones for multimedia purposes.
*830mAh (comparison with conventional same size battery : 760mAh)

• Main Characteristics of New Concept Battery Pack (S Pack)
Utilizing the characteristics of lithium ion batteries (no leakage, less swelling), the battery pack has been simplified, reducing the number of parts. Also, by using a stronger external film as it is as the exterior pack, maximum space efficiency has been achieved in the final products, which is the battery pack.

• High power Cylindrical Lithium Ion battery (V Cell, VT Cell Series)
By using Nickel/Manganese mixture in the positive electrode, stability in high temperature conditions have been achieved, also achieving safe usage with high level of current, this being the characteristics of V/VT series. By the combination with high-voltage, which is the characteristics of lithium ion batteries, usage in the high-power output application field (such as power tools, cleaners, motor assisted bicycles) will be ideal, where conventionally Nickel-Cadmium, Nickel-Hydrogen batteries were used. In the 18650V cell, maximum output of 10A, and in the 6650VT cell, maximum output of 50A have been achieved.