HECToR
Encyclopedia
HECToR is a British
academic national supercomputer
service funded by EPSRC, NERC
and BBSRC for the UK academic community. The HECToR service is run by partners including EPCC
, STFC
and Numerical Algorithms Group
(NAG
).
The supercomputer itself (currently a Cray XE6
) is located at the University of Edinburgh
in Scotland
. The first phase came online in October 2007, and is at 'phase 2b' with a peak performance of over 360 teraflops. A third phase is planned for 2011.
cabinets containing 1416 compute blades, giving a total of 11,328 2.8 GHz AMD
Opteron
processor cores, connected to 576 terabyte
s of RAID
backing storage, later increased to 934 TB. The peak performance of the system was 59 teraflops.
In August 2008, 28 Cray X2
Black Widow vector compute nodes were addded to the system. Each node had 4 vector processor
s, giving a total of 112 processors. Each processor was capable of 25.6 gigaflops, giving a peak performance of 2.87 teraflops. Each 4-processor node shared 32 gigabytes of memory.
s. Peak performance was increased to 208 teraflops.
system featuring 12-core Opteron 6100 processors, giving a total of 44,544 cores and a peak performance of over 360 teraflops. At the same time the existing XT4 system was reduced to approximately half its original size. A further upgrade took place later in 2010 to replace the SeaStar2 interconnect with a new interconnect technology, codenamed Gemini.
is Cray Linux Environment (CLE), formerly known as UNICOS/lc
. A variety of applications, compilers and utilities are available to users.
HECToR supports four compiler suites:
Compilation for the HECToR backend nodes is facilitated through the Cray compilation scripts: ftn, cc, and CC.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
academic national supercomputer
Supercomputer
A supercomputer is a computer at the frontline of current processing capacity, particularly speed of calculation.Supercomputers are used for highly calculation-intensive tasks such as problems including quantum physics, weather forecasting, climate research, molecular modeling A supercomputer is a...
service funded by EPSRC, NERC
Natural Environment Research Council
The Natural Environment Research Council is a British research council that supports research, training and knowledge transfer activities in the environmental sciences.-History:...
and BBSRC for the UK academic community. The HECToR service is run by partners including EPCC
EPCC
EPCC is a supercomputing centre based at the University of Edinburgh. Since its foundation, its stated mission has been to accelerate the effective exploitation of novel computing throughout industry, academia and commerce.The University has supported high-performance computing services since 1982...
, STFC
Science and Technology Facilities Council
The Science and Technology Facilities Council is a UK government body that carries out civil research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astronomy .-History:It was formed in April 2007 as a merger of the Particle...
and Numerical Algorithms Group
Numerical Algorithms Group
The Numerical Algorithms Group is a software company which provides methods for the solution of mathematical and statistical problems, and offers services to users of HPC systems. Its products and services are employed by tens of thousands of users from Global 500 companies, universities,...
(NAG
Nag
Nag may refer to:* Nag Missile, a third generation "fire and forget" anti-tank missile* Nag, a horse that is of low quality.* Nag, a male cobra in Rudyard Kipling's Rikki-Tikki-Tavi* Nag, a multi user tasklist manager included in Horde...
).
The supercomputer itself (currently a Cray XE6
Cray XE6
The Cray XE6 is an enhanced version of the Cray XT6 supercomputer, officially announced on 25 May 2010. The XE6 uses the same compute blade found in the XT6, with eight- or 12-core Opteron 6100 processors giving up to 2,304 cores per cabinet, but replaces the SeaStar2+ interconnect router used in...
) is located at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. The first phase came online in October 2007, and is at 'phase 2b' with a peak performance of over 360 teraflops. A third phase is planned for 2011.
Hardware
HECToR's hardware configuration has been progressively upgraded since the system was first commissioned.Phase 1
HECToR's initial configuration, known as Phase 1, featured 60 Cray XT4Cray XT4
The Cray XT4 is an updated version of the Cray XT3 supercomputer. It was released on November 18, 2006. It includes an updated version of the SeaStar interconnect router called SeaStar2, processor sockets for Socket AM2 Opteron processors, and 240-pin unbuffered DDR2 memory...
cabinets containing 1416 compute blades, giving a total of 11,328 2.8 GHz AMD
Advanced Micro Devices
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. or AMD is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Sunnyvale, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for commercial and consumer markets...
Opteron
Opteron
Opteron is AMD's x86 server and workstation processor line, and was the first processor which supported the AMD64 instruction set architecture . It was released on April 22, 2003 with the SledgeHammer core and was intended to compete in the server and workstation markets, particularly in the same...
processor cores, connected to 576 terabyte
Terabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s of RAID
RAID
RAID is a storage technology that combines multiple disk drive components into a logical unit...
backing storage, later increased to 934 TB. The peak performance of the system was 59 teraflops.
In August 2008, 28 Cray X2
Cray X2
The Cray X2 is a vector processing node for the Cray XT5h supercomputer, developed and sold by Cray Inc. and launched in 2007.The X2, developed under the code name Black Widow, was originally expected to be a standalone supercomputer system, superseding the Cray X1 parallel vector supercomputer...
Black Widow vector compute nodes were addded to the system. Each node had 4 vector processor
Vector processor
A vector processor, or array processor, is a central processing unit that implements an instruction set containing instructions that operate on one-dimensional arrays of data called vectors. This is in contrast to a scalar processor, whose instructions operate on single data items...
s, giving a total of 112 processors. Each processor was capable of 25.6 gigaflops, giving a peak performance of 2.87 teraflops. Each 4-processor node shared 32 gigabytes of memory.
Phase 2a
In the summer of 2009, the XT4 cabinets were upgraded with quad-core 2.3 GHz Opteron processors with 8 GB memory each. This doubled the number of processor cores to 22,656, and increased total system memory to 45.3 terabyteTerabyte
The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...
s. Peak performance was increased to 208 teraflops.
Phase 2b
The Phase 2b upgrade, performed in 2010, involved installation of a new 20-cabinet Cray XT6Cray XT6
The Cray XT6 is an updated version of the Cray XT5 supercomputer, launched on 16 November 2009. The dual- or quad-core AMD Opteron 2000-series processors of the XT5 are replaced in the XT6 with eight- or 12-core Opteron 6100 processors, giving up to 2,304 cores per cabinet...
system featuring 12-core Opteron 6100 processors, giving a total of 44,544 cores and a peak performance of over 360 teraflops. At the same time the existing XT4 system was reduced to approximately half its original size. A further upgrade took place later in 2010 to replace the SeaStar2 interconnect with a new interconnect technology, codenamed Gemini.
Software
HECToR's operating systemOperating system
An operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
is Cray Linux Environment (CLE), formerly known as UNICOS/lc
Unicos
UNICOS is the name of a range of Unix-like operating system variants developed by Cray for its supercomputers. UNICOS is the successor of the Cray Operating System . It provides network clustering and source code compatibility layers for some other Unixes. UNICOS was originally introduced in 1985...
. A variety of applications, compilers and utilities are available to users.
HECToR supports four compiler suites:
- PGI compilerPGI compilerThe Portland Group, Inc. or PGI is a company producing a set of commercially available Fortran, C and C++ compilers for high-performance computing systems...
s (v7.1-4) - pgf90, pgf77, pgcc, pgCC. - Pathscale compilers (v3.1) - pathf90, pathcc, pathCC.
- GNUGNUGNU is a Unix-like computer operating system developed by the GNU project, ultimately aiming to be a "complete Unix-compatible software system"...
compilers (v4.2.3) - gfortran, gcc. - CrayCrayCray Inc. is an American supercomputer manufacturer based in Seattle, Washington. The company's predecessor, Cray Research, Inc. , was founded in 1972 by computer designer Seymour Cray. Seymour Cray went on to form the spin-off Cray Computer Corporation , in 1989, which went bankrupt in 1995,...
compilers.
Compilation for the HECToR backend nodes is facilitated through the Cray compilation scripts: ftn, cc, and CC.