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.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Richard Kenway (Principal Investigator) | |
Peter Boyle (Co-Investigator) |
Publications
Sivalingam K
(2012)
Kaon semileptonic decays near the physical point
Mawhinney R
(2014)
Weak Decay Measurements from 2+1 flavor DWF Ensembles
Chaves S
(2022)
Meson thermal masses at different temperatures
Skullerud J
(2016)
Quark-gluon plasma phenomenology from anisotropic lattice QCD
Boyle P
(2018)
Beyond the Standard Model Kaon Mixing with Physical Masses
Del Debbio Luigi
Large-volume results in SU(2) with adjoint fermions
Skullerud J
(2022)
Hadrons at high temperature: an update from the FASTSUM collaboration
Frison J
(2014)
The Kaon Bag Parameter at Physical Mass
Lucini B
(2016)
Large mass hierarchies from strongly-coupled dynamics
Lytle A
(2014)
Kaon Mixing Beyond the Standard Model
Janowski T
(2014)
Determination of the $A_2$ amplitude of $K\to\pi\pi$ decays
Amato A
(2014)
Transport Coefficients of the QGP
Tsang J
(2015)
Charm physics with Moebius Domain Wall Fermions
Bennett E
(2017)
Large mass hierarchies from strongly-coupled dynamics
Garron N
(2022)
Exploring interpolating momentum schemes
Del Debbio L
(2014)
Large volume results in SU(2) with adjoint fermions
Boyle P
(2017)
Machines and Algorithms
Aarts G
(2018)
Hadronic spectrum calculations in the quark-gluon plasma
Allton C
(2016)
Probing parity doubling in nucleons at high temperature
Garron N
(2022)
Exploring interpolating momentum schemes
Schneider C
(2022)
Gradient flow scale setting with tree-level improvement
Boyle P
(2012)
The BlueGene/Q supercomputer
Janowski T
(2015)
K-pi scattering lengths at physical kinematics
Zanotti J
(2014)
SU(3) flavour breaking and baryon structure
Black M
(2023)
B Meson Decay Constants Using Relativistic Heavy Quarks
Skullerud J
(2014)
Phase transitions in dense 2-colour QCD
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 | £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 | 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 | 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 |
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 |