Oct. 31 — The ARCHER system will be expanded with the addition of a further 10 cabinets of Cray XC30, using the same Intel IvyBridge processor technology currently in use in ARCHER. The upgrade is a result of an in-depth consultation process with users and the wider scientific communities using ARCHER. The clear message was that an expansion of ARCHER using the same technologies and configuration would be preferred and means that disruption for users is kept to a minimum. As a result, the research communities will be able to make maximum use of the service immediately.
Following the upgrade, ARCHER will consist of 26 cabinets containing a total of 4920 compute nodes. This equates to 118,080 cores. ARCHER’s computing power will increase by approximately 60%, meaning ARCHER will have a theoretical top speed of over 2 Petaflops.
The upgrade is currently going to plan. The new equipment is in the UK and the site installation work is due to commence next week. The full schedule is as below. We will advise if the plan changes in any way.
- 5th November 2014 : ARCHER Unavailable, Cooling System Upgrade
- 11th-18th November : ARCHER Unavailable, Hardware Expansion
- 18th-20th November : ARCHER Unavailable, Acceptance Testing
- 20th November : ARCHER Unavailable, Special User Testing Period
—
Source: ARCHER