University of Edinburgh’s ‘Eddie’ HPC Gets Power Boost

Multi-disciplinary researchers from across the University of Edinburgh – working in areas including bioinformatics, speech processing, particle physics, material physics, chemistry, cosmology, medical imaging and psychiatry – will now benefit from an upgrade to the University’s shared, High Performance Computer System (HPC system), known as ‘Eddie‘.  

The new HPC system, operational from July 2010, immediately doubles the compute power available to researchers enabling them to run more complex computer simulations and scenarios, and obtain research results more quickly. A second planned upgrade for 2011 is expected to result in at least five times the current compute power of Eddie being available to researchers.

Despite immediately doubling the compute power available, the HPC system will generate less heat than its predecessor and have minimal energy consumption. There are several reasons for the reduction in heat emissions. Firstly, there are efficiency improvements contained in Intel’s Westmere platform. Second, heat emissions are reduced by the HPC system’s use of IBM System x iDataPlex servers, which are custom engineered for excellent energy efficiency. In addition, the University’s system is fitted with iDataplex water-cooling features to remove 100 per cent of heat generated by the system close to the source, which when combined with the use of Scottish air to cool the water, provides almost free cooling for much of the year.  

Unique design, build, configuration, implementation and support of the HPC system now and, again in 2011, will be undertaken by the UK’s premier HPC system integrator, high performance storage integrator and cloud service provider, OCF plc.  

"The HPC system design put forward by OCF provides both an increase in compute power for the benefit of researchers and a reduction in the University’s running costs due to the innovative technologies in use," says Jean Ritchie, Edinburgh Compute Data Facility Service Director, the University of Edinburgh. "The new Eddie will deliver double the compute power with significantly reduced heat and energy consumption."  

"The HPC system in use by the University’s researchers – ‘Eddie version 1.0’ – adequately serves its existing user base," says Julian Fielden, managing director, OCF plc. "However, the planned, significant upgrades to Eddie will enable researchers to undertake more complex, in-depth research and receive research results more quickly."  

"IBM is excited to be starting this strategic research collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and looks forward to utilising the High Performance Computing potential of iDataPlex to push through new boundaries of innovation towards creating a smarter planet," says Elmer Corbin, IBM Director, Systems & Technology Business Development and University Strategic Alliances.

The HPC system design incorporates:

• IBM System x iDataPlex servers, running Intel’s latest CPU Westmere E5620 Quad Core processors
• 40 TB of high performance data storage using IBM System Storage DS5100 and a combination of fibre channel and solid state drives, fully integrated with an existing 90 TB of SATA storage using IBM’s General Parallel File System (GPFS)
• a combination of BLADE Network Technologies GB8124R 24-port 10Gb Ethernet switches and QLogic 12300 36-port QDR InfiniBand switches, also BLADE Network Technologies G8000 1Gb Ethernet switches.