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
Flynn J.M.
(2021)
Nonperturbative calculations of form factors for exclusive semileptonic B(s) decays
in Proceedings of Science
Evans W
(2014)
Charmonium Potentials at Non-Zero Temperature
Evans P
(2014)
Ab initio calculation of finite-temperature charmonium potentials
in Physical Review D
Del Debbio Luigi
Large-volume results in SU(2) with adjoint fermions
Del Debbio L
(2014)
Large volume results in SU(2) with adjoint fermions
Del Debbio L
(2013)
The transition to a layered phase in the anisotropic five-dimensional SU(2) Yang-Mills theory
in Physics Letters B
Del Debbio L
(2016)
Large volumes and spectroscopy of walking theories
in Physical Review D
Del Debbio L
(2014)
IR fixed points in lattice field theories
in International Journal of Modern Physics A
Cotter S
(2013)
Towards the phase diagram of dense two-color matter
in Physical Review D
Cotter S
(2014)
Determination of Karsch Coefficients for 2-colour QCD
Christ N
(2016)
First exploratory calculation of the long-distance contributions to the rare kaon decays K ? p l + l -
in Physical Review D
Cho Y
(2015)
Improved lattice fermion action for heavy quarks
in Journal of High Energy Physics
Chaves S
(2022)
Meson thermal masses at different temperatures
Chambers A
(2015)
A novel approach to nonperturbative renormalization of singlet and nonsinglet lattice operators
in Physics Letters B
Chambers A
(2014)
Feynman-Hellmann approach to the spin structure of hadrons
in Physical Review D
Boz T
(2020)
Dense two-color QCD towards continuum and chiral limits
in Physical Review D
Boz T
(2018)
Finite-density gauge correlation functions in QC2D
Boz T
(2019)
Finite-density gauge correlation functions in QC 2 D
in Physical Review D
Boyle PA
(2013)
Emerging understanding of the ?I=1/2 rule from lattice QCD.
in Physical review letters
Boyle P.
(2016)
Machines and algorithms
in Proceedings of Science
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 | 05/2012 |
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 | 05/2012 |
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 | 10/2014 |
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 | 05/2015 |
End | 03/2017 |