Last modified: 2/5/2017
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STFC's Scientific Computing Department has over thirty years' experience in the design, implementation and development of world leading scientific software. It is internationally recognised as a centre for parallelisation, optimisation and porting of existing software to leading edge and novel architecture systems. In addition to domain expertise in a wide range of disciplines the Department also has strong software engineering and numerical algorithms expertise.
Following recent capital investments from UK government the Department has established the Hartree Centre in collaboration with IBM. This outward facing centre offers a range of services including collaborative software development and access to a range of novel hardware platforms (98,304 core Blue Gene/Q, Blue Gene Active Storage, iDataPlex, NextScale, ARM, nVidia Tesla GPU, Intel Phi and Maxeler MPX-X).
For access to the Hartree Centre machines and support in your research projects, please contact: David Holder, Head of Programme Support Office, The Hartree Centre, STFC Daresbury Laboratory, WA4 4AD: e-mail: david.holder@stfc.ac.uk; tel: 01925 603120.
For current status and system information see [Status Page|http://community.hartree.stfc.ac.uk/wiki/site/admin/status.html] .
Summary of system compute nodes:
Name | System Type | Core Type | Number | Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Ace | Arm-64 Cluster | Arm-v8 | currently being up-graded | |
Bantam | BlueGene/Q BGAS | BGP | 2,048x16 +512x16 (BGAS) | de-commissioned Mar'2017 |
Bifort | BlueGene/Q | BGP | 6,144x16 | de-commissioned end Apr'2016 |
CDS | Central Data Store | storage | currently being up-graded | |
Dawson | BigData Cluster | X86_64 | ||
DeLorean | Maxeler DFE | X86_64 and GPFA | 6x12? IB + 5x8 DFE | |
Fairthorpe | login cluster | various | ||
Iden | IBM iDataPlex | X86_64 IvyBridge and Xeon Phi 5110P | 84x24 IB +42x Phi | |
Invicta | IBM iDataPlex | X86_64 SandyBridge E5-2670 | 512x16 | de-commissioned end Apr'2016 |
Jade | Atos nVidia DGX1 cluster | currently being installed | ||
Napier | IBM NextScale | X86_64 IvyBridge E5-2697 | 360x24 | |
Neale | ClusterVision Cluster | X86_86 IvyBridge E5-2650 | 120*16 | |
Palmerston | Power-8 Cluster | Power8E 8247 | 2x24 (192 threads per node) | de-commissioned |
Panther | Power-8 Cluster | Power8 8335-GTA | 32x16 (128 threads per node) | |
Paragon | Power-8 Cluster | Power8 8335-GTB | 32x16 (128 threads per node) | |
Scafell Pike | Atos Sequana cluster | currently being installed | ||
Viceroy | interactive and visualisation cluster | 2x iDataPlex nodes with nVidia Quaddro 5000 |
The Hartree Centre has a heterogeneous collection of computational, storage, and networking resources. Each resource is designed to fulfill a specific requirement in the field of high performance and scientific computing, and using the right resources for each task is an essential part of getting the most out of any project.
Procurement in early 2012 included refurbishment of the existing HPCx computer room at Daresbury Laboratory. It is now split into two to form a state-of-the art data centre, half with water cooling, and half with conventional air cooling.
Phase-1 computer systems were Invicta (aka Blue Wonder), Bantam and Bifort (aka Blue Joule). These have now been de-commssioned to make way for more efficient and highly performing architectures.
There is a Flash time-lapse video showing the installation during March 2014 here: http://avon.dl.ac.uk/hartree/phase2_installation.flv .
The login cluster for Iden and Napier is named Calcott.
From 18 April - 12 May, the main components of the new Hartree Centre system, Scafell Pike will be delivered to site and installed in the HDR. This includes 22 racks and 80+ pallets of equipment with water and electrical hook ups to take place in early May. The Impact & Engagement team are arranging time lapse footage of the installation for sharing at a future date.
The Joint Academic Data Science Endeavour (JADE), an NVIDIA DGX-1 system owned by the University of Oxford and run as part of a Tier-2, EPSRC-funded consortium has been installed at the Hartree Centre. We will host and support the system in partnership with Atos, who are providing the hardware. JADE will be the largest GPU facility in the UK supporting world-leading research in machine learning.
We have a wide range of Big Data software, for more information contact the business development team.
See separate page on Big Data.
Note, there is a separate area describing systems related to our Energy Efficient Computing Research Programme and the projects running on them: http://community.hartree.stfc.ac.uk/portal/site/eecrp .
See above.
This is a novel cooling demonstrator from Insight and ClusterVision:
This is an FPGA system from Viglen and Maxeler.
This is an Arm-v8 based system from Misco, OCF, IBM and ARM.
For more information on these systems go to Energy Efficient Computing Systems .
Login via Fairthorpe
How to find your way around The Hartree Centre and how many people the rooms can accommodate:
Number | Name | Purpose | Seating | Standing |
---|---|---|---|---|
Hartree Centre Glass meeting room | Hartree VC1 | meetings room | 15 | |
Hartree Centre S.16 | Hartree VC2 | Conference room | 16 | |
Hartree Centre Ground floor Seminar room | Hartree G.08 | Seminar room | 30 | |
Hartree Centre meeting room | Hartree G.09 | meeting room | 20 | |
A52 | Thomson | Meeting and Seminar Room | 40 | 70 |
A53 | Leverhulme | Surround Wall Visualisation Suite | 25 | 50 |
A54 | Crosfield | Quad Wall Visualisation Suite | 30 | 60 |
A56 | Brunner-Mond | Training Workstations | 60 | 100 |
C-Block | HDR | high density (water cooled) data centre | ||
C-Block | LDR | low density (air cooled) data centre | ||
C-Block | Green Room | energy efficient computing area |
If you would like to organise an event at the Hartree Centre such as a workshop, training course or tour then please see http://www.hartree.stfc.ac.uk/Hartree/Training+and+skills/45515.aspx where there is a link to an Event Proposal Form.
Visualisation suites and Brunner-Mond can also be booked via this form or you can send an email to the Hartree Centre Service Desk at hartree@stfc.ac.uk.
A list of events can be seen on the STFC Events Booking page at: https://eventbooking.stfc.ac.uk/news-events/
The visualisation suite comprises two parts: the Surround Wall (or Curved Wall) in the Leverhulme room; and the Quad Wall in the Crosfield room, which is adjacent to the training suite. These facilities support full 3D active stereo and a wide range of visual applications.
For more information, see here: http://tyne.dl.ac.uk/twiki/bin/view/Visualisation/WebHome .
The training suite in the Brunner-Mond room consists of several rows of desks with a total of around 50 workstations. There are two presenters' areas with separate workstations and projectors onto wall mounted screens. This is primarily designed as an area for hands-on computer based training. There are separate facilities for seminars, lectures and workshops.
For more information, see here: http://community.hartree.stfc.ac.uk/library/content/gateway/training.html .