DiRAC BlueGene/Q Upgrade
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Edinburgh
Department Name: Sch of Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
The BlueGene/Q computer that serves the DiRAC Consortium will be upgraded to increase its compute capability by 50% to ensure that it remains an internationally competitive supercomputer for as long as possible, enabling UK scientists to carry out the most demanding simulations in particle physics and astrophysics. The BlueGene/Q architecture has been designed to enable highly energy-efficient and compute-intensive simulations of the strong force between quarks and gluons, and it will be used primarily for high precision calculations of Standard Model processes that can be compared with experimental measurements to search for signals of new physics. It will also be used to explore nuclear matter at high temperatures and densities, to understand the origin of the masses of elementary particles, and for a range of astrophysics simulations related to cosmology, galaxy and star formation.
Planned Impact
The contribution to the design, prototyping and testing of BlueGene/Q will enable IBM to bring a better product to market. The ongoing software development will help to ensure these machines are utilised effectively for a wide range of applications that benefit the economy, the environment and our health, and, by training members of the DiRAC Consortium in using the most advanced supercomputer technology, it will enhance computing skills in the workforce.
Publications
Aarts G
(2016)
Finite Temperature Lattice QCD --- Baryons in the Quark--Gluon Plasma
in Acta Physica Polonica B Proceedings Supplement
Aarts G
(2013)
Melting of P wave bottomonium states in the quark-gluon plasma from lattice NRQCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aarts G
(2016)
Complex Langevin in Lattice QCD: Dynamic Stabilisation and the Phase Diagram
in Acta Physica Polonica B Proceedings Supplement
Aarts G
(2014)
Bottomonium in the plasma: Lattice results
in EPJ Web of Conferences
Aarts G
(2015)
Nucleons and parity doubling across the deconfinement transition
in Physical Review D
Aarts G
(2016)
The QCD phase diagram in the limit of heavy quarks using complex Langevin dynamics
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aarts G
(2015)
Electrical conductivity and charge diffusion in thermal QCD from the lattice
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Aarts G
(2013)
S wave bottomonium states moving in a quark-gluon plasma from lattice NRQCD
in Journal of High Energy Physics
| Description | The objective to upgrade the computational capabilities of the BlueGene/Q computer, which is part of the DiRAC (Distributed Research utilising Advanced Computing) National Facility, by 50% was achieved successfully. The equipment was procured, delivered, installed and brought into service according to the originally agreed schedule. It has been operating reliably since July 2012 to support the research programmes of the UK theoretical particle physics, astrophysics and nuclear physics communities. The upgrade has ensured that the UK continues to have an internationally competitive computing capability that operates at one of the highest levels of energy efficiency in the world, as a consequence of the computer and machine room designs, both of which benefitted from expertise of staff at the University of Edinburgh |
| Exploitation Route | Access to time on the system is granted through peer review conducted by the DiRAC Resource Allocation Committee. The first round of allocations has been to projects studying the structure, interactions and decays of hadrons, properties of the strong interactions of quarks and gluons at high temperatures, and new strongly-interacting gauge theories that might explain electroweak symmetry breaking. |
| Sectors | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Description | The collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and IBM which developed the BlueGene/Q architecture has continued in two respects: on-going improvements to the BlueGene/Q system software to optimise application performance, which are benefitting a wide range of computational science projects worldwide, and a successor project to develop a new architecture for exascale computing. This work ensures that the expertise at Edinburgh, and more widely in the DiRAC Consortium, in exploiting leading-edge HPC systems for the most demanding physics applications continues to feed into IBM's commercial development. In 2013, IBM terminated the BlueGene R&D project and our work on exascale architectures is continuing with another vendor. Access to the BlueGene/Q facility may be purchased by industry users, along with consultancy and technical support from EPCC. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software) |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Economic |
| Description | PPRP |
| Amount | £241,949 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/K005790/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2012 |
| End | 04/2015 |
| Description | PPRP |
| Amount | £427,192 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/K005804/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2012 |
| End | 04/2015 |
| Description | Standard (FEC) |
| Amount | £1,370,934 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/M006530/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2015 |
| End | 03/2017 |
| Description | Standard (FEC) |
| Amount | £2,393,688 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | ST/L000458/1 |
| Organisation | Science and Technologies Facilities Council (STFC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2014 |
| End | 09/2017 |