Irish Centre for High-End Computing
Encyclopedia
The Irish Centre for High-End Computing (ICHEC) is a distributed national centre providing support for research in high-performance computing
and computational science
in the Republic of Ireland
. ICHEC was established in 2005 and is jointly funded by Science Foundation Ireland
and the Higher Education Authority
. The first director was Dr Andy Shearer of NUI Galway and the current director is Prof Jim Slevin, former president of the Royal Irish Academy
.
As of 2010, ICHEC has 22 staff and manages four supercomputer
systems: two IBM
Blue Gene
systems, an SGI
Altix ICE blade server
cluster
and a Bull high memory system. ICHEC has close ties with the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
and the Associate Director, Dr J-C Desplat, is an honorary professor of computational science in the School of Cosmic Physics. ICHEC works closely with the Irish Meteorological Service Met Éireann
, managing the system for the operation forecast and in many climate research projects. ICHEC is part of the e-INIS (e-Irish National Infra-Structure) consortium.
ICHEC utilises HEAnet
's networking infrastructure to allow access to its supercomputer
systems. These supercomputer
systems are:
ICHEC is one of seven Nvidia
CUDA
research centers. Its work in this area has included the porting to CUDA of the Quantum ESPRESSO and DL_POLY molecular dynamics
packages as well as various industrial benchmarking studies.
ICHEC works with Enterprise Ireland
and Science Foundation Ireland
to provide consultancy services to Irish companies in various areas including Data mining
, Visualisation, GPGPU
, Data management
and Software development
.
High-performance computing
High-performance computing uses supercomputers and computer clusters to solve advanced computation problems. Today, computer systems approaching the teraflops-region are counted as HPC-computers.-Overview:...
and computational science
Computational science
Computational science is the field of study concerned with constructing mathematical models and quantitative analysis techniques and using computers to analyze and solve scientific problems...
in the Republic of Ireland
Republic of Ireland
Ireland , described as the Republic of Ireland , is a sovereign state in Europe occupying approximately five-sixths of the island of the same name. Its capital is Dublin. Ireland, which had a population of 4.58 million in 2011, is a constitutional republic governed as a parliamentary democracy,...
. ICHEC was established in 2005 and is jointly funded by Science Foundation Ireland
Science Foundation Ireland
Science Foundation Ireland ), is the statutory body in the Republic of Ireland with responsibility for disbursing funds for basic science research with a strategic focus...
and the Higher Education Authority
Higher Education Authority
The Higher Education Authority is the authority in Ireland with responsibility for higher education since 1968 and placed on a statutory basis in 1971. The authority supports HEAnet, part of the GEANT network....
. The first director was Dr Andy Shearer of NUI Galway and the current director is Prof Jim Slevin, former president of the Royal Irish Academy
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy , based in Dublin, is an all-Ireland, independent, academic body that promotes study and excellence in the sciences, humanities and social sciences. It is one of Ireland's premier learned societies and cultural institutions and currently has around 420 Members, elected in...
.
As of 2010, ICHEC has 22 staff and manages four 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...
systems: two IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
Blue Gene
Blue Gene
Blue Gene is a computer architecture project to produce several supercomputers, designed to reach operating speeds in the PFLOPS range, and currently reaching sustained speeds of nearly 500 TFLOPS . It is a cooperative project among IBM Blue Gene is a computer architecture project to produce...
systems, an SGI
Silicon Graphics
Silicon Graphics, Inc. was a manufacturer of high-performance computing solutions, including computer hardware and software, founded in 1981 by Jim Clark...
Altix ICE blade server
Blade server
A blade server is a stripped down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can function with a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power...
cluster
Cluster (computing)
A computer cluster is a group of linked computers, working together closely thus in many respects forming a single computer. The components of a cluster are commonly, but not always, connected to each other through fast local area networks...
and a Bull high memory system. ICHEC has close ties with the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, Ireland was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach of the time, Éamon de Valera under the . The Institute consists of 3 schools: The , the and the . The directors of these schools are currently Professor Werner Nahm, Professor Luke Drury and...
and the Associate Director, Dr J-C Desplat, is an honorary professor of computational science in the School of Cosmic Physics. ICHEC works closely with the Irish Meteorological Service Met Éireann
Met Éireann
Met Éireann is the national meteorological service in Ireland, part of the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.-History:...
, managing the system for the operation forecast and in many climate research projects. ICHEC is part of the e-INIS (e-Irish National Infra-Structure) consortium.
ICHEC utilises HEAnet
HEAnet
HEAnet is the Irish NREN; it provides high-speed Internet access to academic institutions in Ireland direct to European and USA networks...
's networking infrastructure to allow access to its 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...
systems. These 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...
systems are:
- the Altix ICE blade serverBlade serverA blade server is a stripped down server computer with a modular design optimized to minimize the use of physical space and energy. Whereas a standard rack-mount server can function with a power cord and network cable, blade servers have many components removed to save space, minimize power...
Stokes, hosted in University College Dublin - the Bull high memory systemStoney, hosted in National University of Ireland, GalwayNational University of Ireland, GalwayThe National University of Ireland, Galway is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland...
.
ICHEC is one of seven Nvidia
NVIDIA
Nvidia is an American global technology company based in Santa Clara, California. Nvidia is best known for its graphics processors . Nvidia and chief rival AMD Graphics Techonologies have dominated the high performance GPU market, pushing other manufacturers to smaller, niche roles...
CUDA
CUDA
CUDA or Compute Unified Device Architecture is a parallel computing architecture developed by Nvidia. CUDA is the computing engine in Nvidia graphics processing units that is accessible to software developers through variants of industry standard programming languages...
research centers. Its work in this area has included the porting to CUDA of the Quantum ESPRESSO and DL_POLY molecular dynamics
Molecular dynamics
Molecular dynamics is a computer simulation of physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a period of time, giving a view of the motion of the atoms...
packages as well as various industrial benchmarking studies.
ICHEC works with Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland
Enterprise Ireland is the Irish leading state economic development agency focused on helping Irish-owned business deliver new export sales. The core mission of Enterprise Ireland is to accelerate the development of Irish enterprises capable of achieving strong positions in global markets resulting...
and Science Foundation Ireland
Science Foundation Ireland
Science Foundation Ireland ), is the statutory body in the Republic of Ireland with responsibility for disbursing funds for basic science research with a strategic focus...
to provide consultancy services to Irish companies in various areas including Data mining
Data mining
Data mining , a relatively young and interdisciplinary field of computer science is the process of discovering new patterns from large data sets involving methods at the intersection of artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics and database systems...
, Visualisation, GPGPU
GPGPU
General-purpose computing on graphics processing units is the technique of using a GPU, which typically handles computation only for computer graphics, to perform computation in applications traditionally handled by the CPU...
, Data management
Data management
Data management comprises all the disciplines related to managing data as a valuable resource.- Overview :The official definition provided by DAMA International, the professional organization for those in the data management profession, is: "Data Resource Management is the development and execution...
and Software development
Software development
Software development is the development of a software product...
.