Blue Waters supercomputer
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| Blue Waters supercomputer | |
|---|---|
| Name | Blue Waters |
| Location | National Center for Supercomputing Applications |
| Architecture | Cray Inc. XK7 |
| Operating system | Linux |
| Memory | 1.5 PB |
| Storage | 25 PB |
| Processing power | 13.3 petaflops |
Blue Waters supercomputer is a Cray Inc. XK7-based supercomputer located at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, supported by the National Science Foundation. The system was designed to support petascale computing and big data applications, with a focus on scientific computing and engineering research, in collaboration with IBM, Intel, and Hewlett Packard. Blue Waters is part of the National Science Foundation's eXtreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment XSEDE program, which also includes TACC's Stampede2 and Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's Bridges.
Introduction
The Blue Waters supercomputer is a powerful tool for scientific research, enabling scientists to simulate complex phenomena and analyze large datasets, in fields such as climate modeling with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory. The system's high-performance computing capabilities make it an ideal platform for researchers from University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and California Institute of Technology to study complex systems, such as weather forecasting with National Weather Service and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Blue Waters is also used for data-intensive research, such as genomics with National Institutes of Health and Broad Institute, and materials science with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. The system's Linux operating system and Cray Inc. XK7 architecture provide a flexible and scalable platform for a wide range of applications, including artificial intelligence with Google and Microsoft.
History
The Blue Waters supercomputer was announced in 2007 as part of the National Science Foundation's Petascale Computing Environment initiative, with University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign as the lead institution, in partnership with University of California, San Diego, University of Texas at Austin, and Ohio State University. The system was designed and built by Cray Inc., with IBM and Intel providing key components, and Hewlett Packard providing storage solutions. Blue Waters was officially dedicated in 2013, with National Science Foundation director Subra Suresh and University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign chancellor Phyllis Wise in attendance, along with representatives from NASA, National Institutes of Health, and Department of Energy. The system has since been upgraded and expanded, with the addition of new nodes and storage systems, in collaboration with Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.
Architecture
The Blue Waters supercomputer is based on the Cray Inc. XK7 architecture, which features a combination of central processing units and graphics processing units from AMD and NVIDIA. The system has a total of 295,296 CPU cores and 27,648 GPU cores, providing a peak performance of 13.3 petaflops, with a memory capacity of 1.5 petabytes and a storage capacity of 25 petabytes, using Seagate Technology and Western Digital storage solutions. The system's interconnect is based on the Cray Inc. Gemini network, which provides high-speed communication between nodes, in collaboration with Cisco Systems and Juniper Networks. Blue Waters also features a Linux operating system and a range of software tools and libraries for scientific computing and data analysis, including OpenMP and MPI.
Performance
The Blue Waters supercomputer has achieved a number of notable performance milestones, including a peak performance of 13.3 petaflops on the LINPACK benchmark, with TOP500 ranking it among the fastest supercomputers in the world, along with Tianhe-2 and Sequoia. The system has also demonstrated high performance on a range of scientific applications, including climate modeling with Community Earth System Model and weather forecasting with Weather Research and Forecasting model, in collaboration with National Center for Atmospheric Research and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Blue Waters has been used for a number of record-breaking simulations, including a climate modeling simulation that achieved a sustained performance of 1.48 petaflops, in partnership with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory.
Applications
The Blue Waters supercomputer has been used for a wide range of scientific applications, including climate modeling with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and National Aeronautics and Space Administration, weather forecasting with National Weather Service and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and materials science with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. The system has also been used for genomics research with National Institutes of Health and Broad Institute, and astrophysics simulations with National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Square Kilometre Array. Blue Waters has been used by researchers from a number of institutions, including University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and California Institute of Technology, to study complex systems and phenomena, in collaboration with Google and Microsoft.
Impact
The Blue Waters supercomputer has had a significant impact on scientific research, enabling researchers to simulate complex phenomena and analyze large datasets, in collaboration with National Science Foundation, Department of Energy, and National Institutes of Health. The system has been used for a number of high-impact research projects, including climate modeling studies with Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and weather forecasting research with World Meteorological Organization. Blue Waters has also been used for data-intensive research, such as genomics and materials science, in partnership with Broad Institute and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The system's high-performance computing capabilities have enabled researchers to make new discoveries and advance our understanding of complex systems, in fields such as artificial intelligence with Google and Microsoft, and biomedical research with National Institutes of Health and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.