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March 14, 2008
UK Researchers Have Big Plans for Cray Allocation
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Dr. Lee Margetts, head of Synthetic Environments at the University of Manchester Aerospace Research Institute, has recently been awarded the largest single allocation of CPU on the UK's HECToR Service. HPCwire contacted him to find out just what he hopes to do with three million processor hours of high-end compute time.
HPCwire: Hello Lee. Well let me start by asking what exactly is HECToR?
Lee Margetts: Hi. Well, HECToR is an acronym that stands for High End Computing Terascale Resource. It's a UK service that was launched in January this year. The first phase is a Cray XT4 with more than 6,000 dual core processors.
HPCwire: Three million processor hours seems like a lot of time on a Cray machine. What are you going to do with it all?
Margetts: Yes, it is a very generous allocation. In financial terms, we're talking about 1.7 million pounds sterling or 3.5 million dollars. This is a significant award for the University of Manchester. I'm personally not going to be involved in every stage of the process. I'm just one of a large team of academics and researchers who are using ParaFEM, a general purpose code for parallel finite element analysis that I started to develop with my PhD supervisor nearly 10 years ago.
HPCwire: What are you using the code for?
Margetts: Our main project is titled "Ultrascalable Modelling of Materials with Complex Architectures". This is led by Dr. Paul Mummery and Dr. Mohammad Sheikh at the University of Manchester. The team are using imaging techniques to create 3D models of real material microstructures. After an image is created, it is converted into a finite element mesh using software from a UK company called Simpleware Ltd.
HPCwire: Sounds fascinating, but what exactly are the application areas?
Margetts: There are many. Where do I start? We're doing some work with the European Space Agency, looking at the thermo-mechanical properties of carbon foams for spacecraft applications. We're also looking at the design of woven composites for high temperature and high performance engineering applications. There's also a project running that's looking at the lifetime behavior of concrete in nuclear reactor pressure vessels. This work is led by Professor Roger Crouch at the University of Durham. But perhaps the most exciting application area involves dinosaurs."
HPCwire: HPC and dinosaurs. That sounds like a combination that wouldn't get many hits in Google!
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