Cray Awarded $65 Million HPC Contract From European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

Cray Inc.
announced the European Centre for Medium-Range
Weather Forecasts (ECMWF), one of the world’s premier numerical weather
prediction and research centers, selected a Cray XC30 supercomputer and Cray
Sonexion storage for their next operational facility.

The Cray system will improve ECMWF’s forecasting capabilities through
increased resolution and model enhancements, as well as support ECMWF’s
research program.

ECMWF is focused on the development and operation of global models and
data-assimilation systems for the dynamics, thermodynamics, and composition of
the Earth and its surrounding systems. An independent intergovernmental
organization supported by 34 European nations, the center provides operational,
extended-range, and seasonal global forecasts 365 days a year, as well as
specialized research such as wave forecasts and global atmospheric composition.

"I am looking forward to working
with Cray to enabl us to continue improving the skill of our weather
predictions. The Cray system will be a strong foundation to meet our strategic,
operational and research objectives," said ECMWF director-general, Professor
Alan Thorpe. "ECMWF’s history of
using supercomputers dates back to 1979 when the Centre issued its first operational
medium-range weather forecast. Our European member states will all continue to
benefit from the ground-breaking weather research we can provide on this new
system."

"ECMWF is one of the premier weather
organizations in the world and we are thrilled to start a long and close
partnership with the Centre," said Dr. Ulla Thiel, Cray VP, Europe.
"It is also an exciting message to
the earth sciences community that ECMWF has selected Cray technology. Cray’s
leading edge products, support and services will strongly support ECMWF’s
mandate to reliably deliver superior meteorological forecasting products and
research."

The Cray multi-petaflops supercomputing infrastructure at ECMWF is designed for
operational resiliency featuring two Cray XC30 systems and a multi-petabyte
Cray Sonexion storage system. The Sonexion system is an integrated,
scale-out Lustre system designed for a broad range of big data and HPC
workloads. It offers compact design for maximum density and can reduce the
storage footprint by 50% for petascale systems. Previously code-named ‘Cascade,’ the Cray XC30 supercomputer is Cray’s most advanced HPC and is engineered to meet the demanding performance challenges of
HPC users.

The Cray XC30 features the Aries system interconnect; a Dragonfly
network topology that frees applications from locality constraints; a cooling system that utilizes a transverse airflow to lower
customers’ TCO; the next-generation of the scalable, high performance Cray
Linux Environment that also supports a range of ISV applications; Cray’s
HPC optimized programming environment; and the ability to handle a variety of
processor types, including Xeon processors, Xeon Phi coprocessors,
and NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators.

Consisting of products and multi-year
services, the contract is valued at more than $65 million in total revenue and
the system is expected to be put into production in 2014. The contract includes
options for future upgrades and future technologies.