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
Guandalin C
(2021)
Observing relativistic features in large-scale structure surveys - I. Multipoles of the power spectrum
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bourne M
(2021)
AGN jet feedback on a moving mesh: gentle cluster heating by weak shocks and lobe disruption
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
DeGraf C
(2020)
Cosmological simulations of massive black hole seeds: predictions for next-generation electromagnetic and gravitational wave observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Forouhar Moreno V
(2022)
Galactic satellite systems in CDM, WDM and SIDM
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Roper W
(2022)
First Light And Reionisation Epoch Simulations ( flares ) - IV. The size evolution of galaxies at z = 5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Owens A
(2021)
ExoMol line lists - XLI. High-temperature molecular line lists for the alkali metal hydroxides KOH and NaOH
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Slyz A
(2020)
How to quench a dwarf galaxy: The impact of inhomogeneous reionization on dwarf galaxies and cosmic filaments
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Koudmani S
(2021)
A little FABLE: exploring AGN feedback in dwarf galaxies with cosmological simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Quinn J
(2022)
Flute and kink instabilities in a dynamically twisted flux tube with anisotropic plasma viscosity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Haworth T
(2020)
The observational anatomy of externally photoevaporating planet-forming discs - I. Atomic carbon
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cataldi P
(2022)
Fingerprints of modified gravity on galaxies in voids
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Haidar H
(2022)
The black hole population in low-mass galaxies in large-scale cosmological simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cooke R
(2020)
The ACCELERATION programme: I. Cosmology with the redshift drift
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wijers N
(2022)
The warm-hot circumgalactic medium around EAGLE-simulation galaxies and its detection prospects with X-ray-line emission
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mukherjee S
(2021)
SEAGLE - II. Constraints on feedback models in galaxy formation from massive early-type strong-lens galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bastian N
(2020)
The globular cluster system mass-halo mass relation in the E-MOSAICS simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Vera-Casanova A
(2022)
Linking the brightest stellar streams with the accretion history of Milky Way like galaxies
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Mitchell M
(2021)
A general framework to test gravity using galaxy clusters - V. A self-consistent pipeline for unbiased constraints of f ( R ) gravity
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Zhang H
(2022)
Spherical accretion of collisional gas in modified gravity I: self-similar solutions and a new cosmological hydrodynamical code
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cuesta-Lazaro C
(2020)
Towards a non-Gaussian model of redshift space distortions
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Suarez T
(2021)
Modelling intergalactic low ionization metal absorption line systems near the epoch of reionization
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wright S
(2022)
Non-local thermal equilibrium spectra of atmospheric molecules for exoplanets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wang Y
(2020)
Iterative removal of redshift-space distortions from galaxy clustering
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Dalla Vecchia C
(2020)
Constraining the inner density slope of massive galaxy clusters
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Owens A
(2022)
ExoMol line lists - XLVII. Rovibronic molecular line list of the calcium monohydroxide radical (CaOH)
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Font A
(2022)
Quenching of satellite galaxies of Milky Way analogues: reconciling theory and observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Soussana A
(2020)
The impact of AGN feedback on galaxy intrinsic alignments in the Horizon simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Smith A
(2021)
Reducing the variance of redshift space distortion measurements from mock galaxy catalogues with different lines of sight
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Fossati M
(2021)
MUSE analysis of gas around galaxies (MAGG) - III. The gas and galaxy environment of z = 3-4.5 quasars
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davé R
(2020)
Galaxy cold gas contents in modern cosmological hydrodynamic simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ali A
(2022)
Stellar winds and photoionization in a spiral arm
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bartlett D
(2021)
Spatially offset black holes in the Horizon-AGN simulation and comparison to observations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Katsianis A
(2020)
The high-redshift SFR-M* relation is sensitive to the employed star formation rate and stellar mass indicators: towards addressing the tension between observations and simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Shao S
(2021)
The twisted dark matter halo of the Milky Way
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Gaikwad P
(2020)
Probing the thermal state of the intergalactic medium at z > 5 with the transmission spikes in high-resolution Ly a forest spectra
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Lofthouse E
(2020)
MUSE Analysis of Gas around Galaxies (MAGG) - I: Survey design and the environment of a near pristine gas cloud at z ˜ 3.5
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Schirra A
(2021)
Bringing faint active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to light: a view from large-scale cosmological simulations
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Šoltinskí T
(2021)
The detectability of strong 21 centimetre forest absorbers from the diffuse intergalactic medium in late reionisation models
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Ilee J
(2020)
Observing protoplanetary discs with the Square Kilometre Array - I. Characterizing pebble substructure caused by forming planets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Bate M
(2020)
Photoionizing feedback in spiral arm molecular clouds
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Matsumoto J
(2021)
Magnetic inhibition of the recollimation instability in relativistic jets
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Wijers N
(2020)
The warm-hot circumgalactic medium around EAGLE-simulation galaxies and its detection prospects with X-ray and UV line absorption
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Hou J
(2021)
How well is angular momentum accretion modelled in semi-analytic galaxy formation models?
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Jackson R
(2021)
The origin of low-surface-brightness galaxies in the dwarf regime
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Khachaturyants T
(2021)
How stars formed in warps settle into (and contaminate) thick discs
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Christiansen J
(2020)
Jet feedback and the photon underproduction crisis in simba
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Prole L
(2022)
Primordial magnetic fields in Population III star formation: a magnetized resolution study
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cataneo M
(2022)
The matter density PDF for modified gravity and dark energy with Large Deviations Theory
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Davies C
(2021)
Optimal void finders in weak lensing maps
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Beraldo e Silva L
(2021)
Co-formation of the thin and thick discs revealed by APOGEE-DR16 and Gaia -DR2
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
| 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 |