Blue Gene/L

SCD researches ways to utilize new computer architecture for atmospheric science

SCD is currently studying the computer architecture of IBM Blue Gene/L which went online on March 28, 2005 after passing five days of acceptance testing on the first try. Installation photo gallery

Nicknamed "frost," the system will be at NCAR for the next three years.

Because frost is an experimental system and lacks a complete computational environment for users, it cannot yet be used for production computing. SCD is in the process of running performance I/O tests, repartitioning the architecture into smaller blocks to accommodate a variety of users, setting up job queues, and writing tools to support the machine.

SCD is also collaborating with researchers at the University of Colorado, IBM, Argonne National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and the San Diego Supercomputing Center to see how the Blue Gene/L architecture can be best used for atmospheric science. Joint projects include testing applications, debugging software, developing new system configurations, and evaluting job schedulers.

In addition, SCD has joined the Blue Gene/L Consortium, an association of laboratories, universities, and industrial partners working to develop scientific and technical applications for Blue Gene/L.

SCD expects to make frost available to select researchers for experimental use by the end of May 2005.

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A very fast machine

Frost, just one rack of a full, 64-rack Blue Gene/L system, has 1,024 dual-processor computer nodes (2048 CPUs) and 32 I/O nodes. Each processor runs at .7 GHz, which is relatively slow—for example, current Pentiums run at 3.2 GHz. However, because its processors are slow, they produce less heat and can be more tightly packed. Thus, the new system:

• Takes up 3% of the floor space of NCAR's flagship computer, an IBM Cluster 1600 named bluesky
• Uses 6% of the electricity required by bluesky
• Delivers 69% of bluesky's peak computational power