Supercomputer debuts in Boulder
Super fast IBM machine will help in atmospheric research
By Bill Scanlon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Thursday, May 8, 2008
A supercomputer that can perform 76 trillion operations per second and is nicknamed Bluefire is now operating in Boulder where it will give scientists nationwide a better handle on climate change.
The National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder accepted delivery today on an IBM Power 575 Hydro-Cluster. It's the first such computer to be shipped anywhere in the world.
Scientists at NCAR and across the nation will use Bluefire to speed research into climate change and severe weather events such as hurricanes.
Supercomputers let scientists run complex atmospheric scenarios to understand what has happened in the past with our climate and to create projections of what might happen in the future, given variables such as increases in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
The water-cooled behemoth will record and map patterns of rain and drought around the world. It will be used to find changes in growing seasons and the influence of global warming on catastrophic weather events, and can help anticipate where and when dangerous storms might strike.
Its peak speed is more than 76 teraflops, referring to 76 trillion floating-point operations per second.
When it is fully operational in August it will triple NCAR's computing capacity, said Tom Bettge, director of operations and services for NCAR's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory. Its total capacity will move it into the top 25 of all supercomputers in the world
Scientists will be able to conduct breakthrough calculations, study vital problems at much higher resolution and complexity, and get results more quickly than before, he said.
IBM's vice president of deep computing, Dave Turek, said NCAR has a well-deserved reputation for deploying supercomputers on extremely difficult tasks and that Bluefire opens the way to even more challenging projects.
The supercomputer houses 4,064 powerful microprocessors with a clock speed of 4.7 gigahertz, 12 terabytes of memory and 150 terabytes of disk storage.
How's that compare to today's office machines?
The Bluefire at NCAR has some 75,000 times the total memory storage capacity of a 2-gig work station found in a typical office.
Bluefire uses a unique water-based cooling system that is more energy efficient that typical air-cooled systems, Bettge said.
Water-chilled copper plates come in direct contact with each microprocessor chip, helping remove the heat that can be devastating to a computer's performance.
"We're especially pleased that Bluefire provides dramatically increased performance with much greater energy efficiency," Bettge said.
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May 8, 2008
12:52 p.m.
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Keno33 writes:
A new false idol for the global warming religion
May 8, 2008
12:59 p.m.
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Dick_Tater writes:
And how much did this cost? Guess the ( our tax ) money is better spent on a super computer to track weather that will be worth half as much in a year. Better that than spending the money on research to make us independant of oil.
May 8, 2008
1:27 p.m.
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Scott writes:
I don't care how fast/powerful the computer is. It is only as good as the model that runs on it. GIGO, Garbage In Garbage Out.
Regarding Bluefire: This is one kick ass computer! 4.7 GHz and 12 TBytes of memory ... I could live with that :-)
Bill Scanlon: Something does not make sense in your article. You say, "... houses a powerful microprocessor" and then say, "... contains 4,064 processors ...". What it seems is that the processor complex contains 4,064 microprocessors. Is my observation correct? Also, do you know what operating system this beast uses? I'll bet it ain't Billy Boy's Windoz ;-)
Thanks,
Scott
May 8, 2008
3:03 p.m.
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chartguy writes:
That "75,000 times the memory" doesn't make sense. 12 terabytes is 6,144 times as much as 2 gigabytes. Are they contending that any computer shipped in the last couple of years has 2GB of hard drive? Notebooks are shipping with 60-200GB of hard drive. Desktops ship with even more.
May 8, 2008
3:35 p.m.
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Scott writes:
I should have looked at the NCAR web site before I posted my first comment. It appears that Bill Scanlon paraphrased it from NCAR's press release: http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/200... .
The press release for NCAR press release makes more sense regarding the processors. It essentially say that Bluefire has 4,064 POWER6 processors.
I could not find anything regarding the comparison between the amount of memory in a PC and Bluefire in the NCAR press release. After I did some number crunching I suspect Bill is comparing apples with oranges. If you compare 2 GBytes with the quoted 150 TBytes for Bluefire's disk THEN you get "75,000 times the memory". It appears that Bill compared a PC's RAM, 2 GBytes is now common for a PC, with Bluefires disk size, hence my apple versus oranges observation. I completely agree with all of chartguy's comments.
BTW, the NCAR web site for the Bluefire's specs is: http://www.cisl.ucar.edu/computers/bl.... Lots of neat nerd type info on this site. Under software it says that Bluefire runs IBM's proprietary version of UNIX! GO BELL LABS! UNIX was invented at Bell Labs back in the 1969 by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie
Scott
May 8, 2008
4:19 p.m.
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DeimosJB writes:
Awesome computer. Sub-par usage.
May 8, 2008
4:37 p.m.
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Big_D writes:
You guys know so little about NCAR/UCAR/NOAA you are laughable. I guess I could explain what satellites they collect data from but then you couldn't look stupid thinking the data is all about global warming.
May 8, 2008
4:43 p.m.
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The_Punnisher writes:
REAL supercomputers run a form of *NIX. When Cray was offered to port WindBlows to the X-MP, we chose to build UNICOS instead...No more CTSS or COS....
UNIX ( and related flavors ) has ALWAYS been around. Porting Athena and X was always a PITA and a resource hog..Not so with FOSS....
But you always got some pretty pictures...And you do now...
AIX is too proprietary for my blood. I'll stay with FOSS...
Kubuntu looks pretty good....and appears backwards compatible, unike Vista...
Hey NCAR, where is your BEOWULF cluster? I guess you have to throw your $$$ at something....
May 8, 2008
4:54 p.m.
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CaptainObvious writes:
Yes, so, um, who gets to play Grand Theft Auto 4 on it first?
May 8, 2008
5 p.m.
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Golden writes:
What's the point...I thought Uncle AL told us the science was settle?