---------------------------------------------------------------------- H H PPP CCC UK NATIONAL HPC SERVICE H H P P C C -------------------------- HHHHH PPP C x x provided by H H P C C xx EPCC and H H P CCC x x CCLRC Daresbury Laboratory ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HPCx User Mailing 083 20 October 2005 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents ** Change to Power 5: break in service ** HPCx and SC|05: service restrictions ** Workshop: Progress in Environmental Engineering, Daresbury, 21 November ** Course: Scientific Visualisation using VTK, Edinburgh, 23 November ** Course: Parallel IO using MPI-IO, Edinburgh, 24 November ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Greetings-- CHANGE TO POWER 5: BREAK IN SERVICE As I mentioned last month, HPCx is currently undergoing a major upgrade: the existing Power 4+ system is being replaced by a new system based on Power 5 processors. The biggest difference to users will be in the increase of main memory: each processor will now have 2Gb intead of 1Gb. The system will include around 96 16-processor nodes connected through the High Performance Switch, with each node sharing 32 Gb of main memory. This will give us a total of 1536 processors which together will match the performance of the existing 1600-processor system. HPCx and IBM have carefully planned the upgrade so as to minimise disruption to our users. The new system is being built alongside the existing one, and the disk drives holding everyone's data will simply be transferred from one to the other. Nonetheless, I said earlier, it will be necessary for us to suspend the service for a maximum of 2 days for the final switch-over. Although there is always the possibility of unexpected hitches, the current plan is for this to happen on 23-24 November. We apologise in advance for this inconvenience. So far, all the equipment is on-site, and has been powered up. Currently we are working on building the new cluster across the switch, and everything is going well. Upgrading to Power 5 will keep HPCx in step with the development of IBM's key technology until the end of the service. This mean we will get the best from their software developments and improvements in the performance of the switch, while keeping compatibility throughout. When we come to the upgrade to Phase 3 we will simply add more nodes to the system - this should happen before the middle of next year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- HPCX AND SC|05: SERVICE RESTRICTIONS The HPCx partners will be present at the SC|05 Supercomputing event in Seattle, WA, 12-18 November. If you're attending, come and visit us at booths 132/136. HPCx, together with our colleagues at CSAR and with the encouragement of EPSRC, will also be assisting two important projects which will be making significant Grid-based demonstrations at SC|05. They are SPICE (Simulated Pore Interactive Computing Experiment) and Towards the Dynome. Each of these demonstrations will need to reserve a number of HPCx frames, both during the event and for preparations. Necessarily this will mean that other batch work will proceed more slowly during these times. Here are the times we know about at present. It's possible that these may need to be extended. Preparation: Thu 27 October: 18:00 - 24:00 Thu 3 November: 18:00 - 24:00 Thu 10 Novevmber: 18:00 - 24:00 During the event: 14 November 23:00 GMT (15:00 PST) - 17 November 23:00 GMT (15:00 PST) Our apologies for any inconvenience. SPICE: http://www.realitygrid.org/SPICE/ RealityGrid: http://www.realitygrid.org Towards the Dynome: http://sc05.supercomputing.org/schedule/event_detail.php?evid=5202 UK e-Science at SC|05: http://www.nesc.ac.uk/events/sc2005/ SC|05: http://sc05.supercomputing.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- WORKSHOP: PROGRESS IN ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEERING Is There A Role For High-End Computing? Daresbury, Monday, 21 November Environmental engineering is a major subject that includes many aspects of biological, chemical and physical phenomena. The design and development of many environmental engineering applications is affected by government policies (noise, emissions) and their societal impact (acid rain, contamination, flooding). A key part of successful engineering design is computer simulation. The workshop is a collaboration with CCP12 and is aimed at raising awareness of the potential benefits of using the UK's high-end computing facilities and to stimulate discussion between leading research groups involved in environmental engineering and related activities. The meeting is intended for both expert and non-expert users and will also highlight current fluids engineering research on HPCx. More information: http://www.cse.clrc.ac.uk/ceg/meetings/enveng/ Registration form: http://www.cse.clrc.ac.uk/ceg/meetings/enveng/EnvEng_RegForm.pdf CCP12: http://www.cse.clrc.ac.uk/ceg/ccp12.shtml ---------------------------------------------------------------------- COURSE: SCIENTIFIC VISUALISATION USING VTK EPCC, Edinburgh, 23 November The Visualisation ToolKit (VTK: http://www.vtk.org/) is an open source, freely available software system for 3D computer graphics, image processing and visualisation, which is used by thousands of researchers and developers around the world. VTK consists of a C++ class library, and several interpreted interface layers including Tcl/Tk, Java, and Python. VTK supports a wide variety of visualisation algorithms including scalar, vector, tensor, texture, and volumetric methods; and advanced modelling techniques such as implicit modelling, polygon reduction, mesh smoothing, cutting, contouring, and Delaunay triangulation. This course is an introduction to the use of VTK for visualisation of large scientific datasets. There are a number of practical exercises which use the Tcl/Tk interface. However, only a very basic understanding of Tcl/Tk programming is required and no prior experience is assumed. VTK is installed and supported on HPCx, although the exercises themselves will be done on local workstations. Registration for this course will open on Monday, 24 October. http://www.hpcx.ac.uk/support/training/form.html VTK: http://www.vtk.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- COURSE: PARALLEL IO USING MPI-IO EPCC, Edinburgh, 24 November The IO part of the MPI-2 standard, which is now widely implemented, gives programmers access to efficient parallel IO in a portable fashion. It is well worth the effort of learning how to use MPI-IO as it enables parallel applications to use a single file format regardless of the number of processes being used. This one-day course will cover: - the difficulties associated with parallel IO - advanced features of MPI derived datatypes - MPI-IO for regular domain decomposition - irregular problems including unstructured meshes and particle methods The course assumes a good understanding of basic MPI programming in Fortran, C or C++. Knowledge of derived datatypes would be useful but not essential. Registration for this course will open on Monday, 24 October. http://www.hpcx.ac.uk/support/training/form.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Regards --John ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Earlier mailings: http://www.hpcx.ac.uk/support/notices/index.html To be removed from the mailing list: log into your website account, go to the "Update" page, and click the "Opt out of user emails" field; then click "Commit update". -- John Fisher j.fisher@epcc.ed.ac.uk HPCx User Administration and Helpdesk HPCx: http://www.hpcx.ac.uk Helpdesk: support@hpcx.ac.uk Phone: +44 131 650 5029 Fax: +44 131 650 6555