Edinburgh DiRAC Resource Grant
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
DiRAC (Distributed Research utilising Advanced Computing) is the integrated supercomputing facility for theoretical modelling and HPC-based research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astronomy and cosmology, areas in which the UK is world-leading. It was funded as a result of investment of £12.32 million, from the Government's Large Facilities Capital Fund, together with investment from STFC and from universities. In 2012, the DiRAC facility was upgraded with a further £15 million capital investment from government (DiRAC-2).
The DiRAC facility provides a variety of computer architectures, matching machine architecture to the algorithm design and requirements of the research problems to be solved. The science facilitated includes: using supercomputers to enable scientists to calculate what theories of the early universe predict and to test them against observations of the present universe; undertaking lattice field theory calculations whose primary aim is to increase the predictive power of the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions through numerical simulation of Quantum Chromodynamics; carrying out state-of-the-art cosmological simulations, including the large-scale distribution of dark matter, the formation of dark matter haloes, the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters, the physics of the intergalactic medium and the properties of the intracluster gas.
This grant is to support the continued operation of the DiRAC facilities until 2017 to ensure that the UK remains one of the world-leaders of theoretical modelling in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology.
The DiRAC facility provides a variety of computer architectures, matching machine architecture to the algorithm design and requirements of the research problems to be solved. The science facilitated includes: using supercomputers to enable scientists to calculate what theories of the early universe predict and to test them against observations of the present universe; undertaking lattice field theory calculations whose primary aim is to increase the predictive power of the Standard Model of elementary particle interactions through numerical simulation of Quantum Chromodynamics; carrying out state-of-the-art cosmological simulations, including the large-scale distribution of dark matter, the formation of dark matter haloes, the formation and evolution of galaxies and clusters, the physics of the intergalactic medium and the properties of the intracluster gas.
This grant is to support the continued operation of the DiRAC facilities until 2017 to ensure that the UK remains one of the world-leaders of theoretical modelling in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology.
Planned Impact
The high-performance computing applications supported by DiRAC typically involve new algorithms and implementations optimised for high energy efficiency which impose demands on computer architectures that the computing industry has found useful for hardware and system software design and testing.
DiRAC researchers have on-going collaborations with computing companies that maintain this strong connection between the scientific goals of the DiRAC Consortium and the development of new computing technologies that drive the commercial high-performance computing market, with economic benefits to the companies involved and more powerful computing capabilities available to other application areas including many that address socio-economic challenges.
DiRAC researchers have on-going collaborations with computing companies that maintain this strong connection between the scientific goals of the DiRAC Consortium and the development of new computing technologies that drive the commercial high-performance computing market, with economic benefits to the companies involved and more powerful computing capabilities available to other application areas including many that address socio-economic challenges.
People |
ORCID iD |
| Richard Kenway (Principal Investigator) | |
| Peter Boyle (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Edwards B
(2020)
ARES I: WASP-76 b, A Tale of Two HST Spectra*
in The Astronomical Journal
Campargue A
(2020)
Detection of electric-quadrupole transitions in water vapour near 5.4 and 2.5 µm.
in Physical chemistry chemical physics : PCCP
Buividovich P
(2020)
Electric conductivity in finite-density S U ( 2 ) lattice gauge theory with dynamical fermions
in Physical Review D
Liow K
(2020)
The role of collision speed, cloud density, and turbulence in the formation of young massive clusters via cloud-cloud collisions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Baugh C
(2020)
Sensitivity analysis of a galaxy formation model
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Santos-Santos I
(2020)
Baryonic clues to the puzzling diversity of dwarf galaxy rotation curves
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Yurchenko S
(2020)
ExoMol molecular line lists - XXXVII. Spectra of acetylene
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Pluriel W
(2020)
ARES. III. Unveiling the Two Faces of KELT-7 b with HST WFC3*
in The Astronomical Journal
Pichon C
(2020)
And yet it flips: connecting galactic spin and the cosmic web
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Widdicombe J
(2020)
Black hole formation in relativistic Oscillaton collisions
in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
Grebel E
(2020)
The mass fraction of halo stars contributed by the disruption of globular clusters in the E-MOSAICS simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Weinberger L
(2020)
Probing delayed-end reionization histories with the 21-cm LAE cross-power spectrum
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reid J
(2020)
Coronal energy release by MHD avalanches: Heating mechanisms
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Correa C
(2020)
The dependence of the galaxy stellar-to-halo mass relation on galaxy morphology
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gronow S
(2020)
SNe Ia from double detonations: Impact of core-shell mixing on the carbon ignition mechanism
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Sedda M
(2020)
The missing link in gravitational-wave astronomy: discoveries waiting in the decihertz range
in Classical and Quantum Gravity
Katz H
(2020)
New methods for identifying Lyman continuum leakers and reionization-epoch analogues
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Changeat Q
(2020)
KELT-11 b: Abundances of Water and Constraints on Carbon-bearing Molecules from the Hubble Transmission Spectrum
in The Astronomical Journal
Heath R
(2020)
On the orbital evolution of binaries with circumbinary discs
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Hori K
(2020)
Solitary magnetostrophic Rossby waves in spherical shells
in Journal of Fluid Mechanics
Mitchell P
(2020)
Galactic inflow and wind recycling rates in the eagle simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Reid J
(2020)
Determining whether the squashing factor, Q , would be a good indicator of reconnection in a resistive MHD experiment devoid of null points
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Yip K
(2020)
On the Compatibility of Ground-based and Space-based Data: WASP-96 b, an Example*
in The Astronomical Journal
Buie E
(2020)
Interpreting Observations of Absorption Lines in the Circumgalactic Medium with a Turbulent Medium
in The Astrophysical Journal
| Description | In December 2009, the STFC Facility, DiRAC, was established to provide distributed High Performance Computing (HPC) services for theoretical modelling and HPC-based research in particle physics, astronomy and cosmology. DiRAC provides a variety of computer architectures, matching machine architecture to the algorithm design and requirements of the research problems to be solved. This grant funds the continued operation of the 1.3Pflop/s Blue Gene/Q system at the University of Edinburgh, which was co-developed by Peter Boyle (University of Edinburgh) and IBM to run with high energy efficiency for months at a time on a single problem to solve some of the most complex problems in physics, particularly the strong interactions of quarks and gluons. The DiRAC Facility supports over 250 active researchers at 27 UK HEIs. This includes the research projects of 100 funded research staff (PDRAs and Research Fellows), over 50 post-graduate projects, and £1.6M of funded research grants. |
| Exploitation Route | Theoretical results obtained input to a range of experimental programmes aiming to increase our understanding of Nature. Algorithms and software developed provide input to computer design. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| URL | http://dirac.ac.uk/ |
| Description | Intel IPAG QCD codesign project |
| Organisation | Intel Corporation |
| Department | Intel Corporation (Jones Farm) |
| Country | United States |
| Sector | Private |
| PI Contribution | We have collaborated with Intel corporation since 2014 with $720k of total direct funding, starting initially as an Intel parallel computing centre, and expanding to direct close collaboration with Intel Pathfinding and Architecture Group. |
| Collaborator Contribution | We have performed detailed optimisation of QCD codes (Wilson, Domain Wall, Staggered) on Intel many core architectures. We have investigated the memory system and interconnect performance, particularly on Intel's latest interconnect hardware called Omnipath. We found serious performance issues and worked with Intel to plan a solution and this has been verified and is available as beta software. It will reach general availability in the Intel MPI 2019 release, and allow threaded concurrent communications in MPI for the first time. A joint paper on the resolution to this was written with the Intel MPI team, and the application of the same QCD programming techniques to machine learning gradient reduction was applied in the paper to the Baidu Research all reduce library, demonstrating a 10x gain for this critical step in machine learning in clustered environments. We are also working with Intel verifying future architectures that will deliver the exascale performance in 2021. |
| Impact | We have performed detailed optimisation of QCD codes (Wilson, Domain Wall, Staggered) on Intel many core architectures. We have investigated the memory system and interconnect performance, particularly on Intel's latest interconnect hardware called Omnipath. We found serious performance issues and worked with Intel to plan a solution and this has been verified and is available as beta software. It will reach general availability in the Intel MPI 2019 release, and allow threaded concurrent communications in MPI for the first time. A joint paper on the resolution to this was written with the Intel MPI team, and the application of the same QCD programming techniques to machine learning gradient reduction was applied in the paper to the Baidu Research all reduce library, demonstrating a 10x gain for this critical step in machine learning in clustered environments. This collaboration has been renewed annually in 2018, 2019, 2020. Two DiRAC RSE's were hired by Intel to work on the Turing collaboration. |
| Start Year | 2016 |