Sun has just announced the selection of its Sun Constellation System at the Sandia National Laboratories, the Forschungszentrum Jülich, and RWTH Aachen University, where it will power the next-generation compute clusters at each institution. All three will implement the Lustre parallel file system as well. The extreme scalability and performance of the Sun Constellation System and Lustre will enable Forschungszentrum Jülich and RWTH Aachen University to hit a peak performance of more than 200 teraflops each in the first phase of deployment.

"The Sun Constellation System is a petascale powerhouse and a prime example of the compute, Open Storage and networking innovations Sun is delivering to help customers tackle the most demanding HPC workloads," said John Fowler, executive vice president, Systems Platforms Group, Sun Microsystems. "First deployed in TACC's Ranger supercomputer, today's announcement proves the Sun Constellation System is the solution of choice for leading-edge HPC customers in health, science, national security and engineering."

At Sandia National Laboratories, the Sun Microsystems' Sun Blade 6048 Modular System, which includes a next-generation Intel Xeon processor (codenamed Nehalem) CPU blade, will power the next-generation compute cluster. For data storage, the cluster will use Open Storage products from Sun Microsystems, including the Lustre parallel file system and Sun Storage J4400 arrays. This system will provide a foundation for the future scientific and engineering capacity needs of the laboratory as they further their mission in support of our national security.

Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany's largest HPC center, will deploy a 207-teraflop supercomputer early in 2009 based on Sun Blade servers and Bull NovaScale servers powered by the next-generation Intel Xeon processor, along with a high-performance input-output (I/O) system based on Solaris ZFS and the Lustre file system, guaranteeing end-to-end data integrity. In addition to next-generation blade servers and the Lustre file system, the HPC solution will include next-generation Sun Fire servers and Sun Storage J4400 Arrays. Sun will also install the complete network based on the newest Sun IB Quad Data Rate (QDR) Switches.

The new Forschungszentrum Jülich supercomputer is part of the "Jülich Research on Petaflops Architectures" or JUROPA project, created by the Forschungszentrum Jülich to investigate emerging cluster technologies and create a new class of cost-efficient supercomputers for petascale computing. Intel, Partec and Sun are contributors to the project, with Bull taking on overall responsibility as prime contractor for the design, delivery and maintenance of the supercomputer. Sun Professional Services will help with installation beginning in 2009, after the next-generation offerings are available.

Forschungszentrum Jülich pursues government-funded research in the fields of health, energy and the environment, and also information technology. With a staff of about 4400, Jülich is one of the largest research centers in Europe.

The RWTH Aachen University has once again chosen an HPC system from Sun Microsystems, a 200-teraflop cluster, which Sun will install in the Aachen University in two installation phases scheduled for completion at the end of 2010.

Based on the next-generation Intel Xeon processor and the Sun Constellation System, the new supercomputer will feature state-of-the-art blade technology and SMP-systems, plus Sun-developed QDR Infiniband switches. Unlike products by other manufacturers, the new Sun QDR switches feature superior density, availability of ports and cabling. Data flow between the storage nodes and the supercomputer will be managed by the Lustre parallel file system.

There is more information on the innovative HPC technologies Sun is showcasing with live demonstrations at Supercomputing 2008 in booth 1021 here.

Sun's Supercomputing 2008 online press kit can be found here. [...read more...]

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