Germany Celebrates Launch of Two Fastest Supercomputers

By Tiffany Trader

September 26, 2018

The new high-performance computer SuperMUC-NG at the Leibniz Supercomputing Center (LRZ) in Garching is the fastest computer in Germany and one of the fastest in the world, boasting 26.7 theoretical petaflops, an almost four-fold increase of the computing power previously available at the center. The official commissioning for SuperMUC-NG (“next generation”) was held at LRZ on Sept. 24. Germany is also celebrating the launch of JUWELS, the new star of the Jülich Supercomputing Center (JSC) and Germany’s second fastest system, inaugurated last week.

SuperMUC-NG details (click to enlarge)

SuperMUC-NG comprises 6,400 Lenovo ThinkSystem SD650 direct-water-cooled computing nodes, and like SuperMUC, runs on 100 percent renewable energy, relying on warm water cooling technology. The new system touts more than 300,000 Intel Xeon Skylake cores, 700 terabytes of main memory, and 70 petabytes of disk storage. A Linpack score has not been revealed, but a top ten ranking on the next Top500 list is expected. It’s yet to be seen whether SuperMUC-NG will edge out the Swiss Piz Daint supercomputer (19.6 petaflops Linpack, 25.3 petaflops peak) to become the fastest HPC system in Europe.

“SuperMUC-NG is an essential component of the national HPC initiative which encompasses more than just exascale machines,” declared backing organization, the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing, in a press statement. “It is a comprehensive approach to provide world-class hardware, software, and know-how for GCS’s HPC users.”

SuperMUC-NG at LRZ (photo courtesy Lenovo)

There are now three SuperMUC systems at the LRZ: SuperMUC Phase I, Phase II and the new SuperMUC-NG Phase I. Predecessor HPC systems SuperMUC Phase I and II will be retired in stages over the next year with the transition scheduled to be completed in 2019.

SuperMUC-NG is funded through the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the Bavarian Ministry of Science and the Arts. “With SuperMUC-NG, we will continue to provide state-of-the-art HPC technology and compute power to foster research and science in Bavaria, Germany, and Europe,” said Prof. Dr. Dieter Kranzlmüller, director of LRZ.

Said Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder at the commissioning: “Bavaria is so strong because we invest courageously and powerfully in high-tech. Together with the federal government, we will spend 150 million euros by 2023 in order to expand our leading position in supercomputers.” Söder  added that as a world-class system, SuperMUC-NG expands the horizons for science and will play a key role in advancing quantum computing for Germany. A “Future Computing” research group is in play to be established at LRZ next year.

Copyright: Forschungszentrum Jülich

JUWELS (short for Jülich Wizard for European Leadership Science) is an Atos BullSequana X1000 supercomputer comprised of more than 2,500 Intel Xeon Platinum nodes, connected by Mellanox EDR InfiniBand. Installed at JSC earlier this year, the phase one implementation currently ranks number 23 on the Top500 list with 6.2 Linpack petaflops (9.9 petaflops peak). 48 Nvidia V100 GPU accelerated nodes, not included in the Top500 run, bring the system capability to 12 petaflops (peak). JUWELS represents the first module of a scalable machine, with an additional module slated to deliver an extra 50+ petaflops in 2019. The system is set to provide valuable services for top interdisciplinary research and significantly boost the scientific standing of North Rhine-Westphalia and Germany.

JUWELS was officially inaugurated on September 18 at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre in a ceremony that included Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek and Armin Laschet, Minister President of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and representatives from Jülich and Atos.

JUWELS inauguration ceremony, Sept. 18, 2018 (Source: ATOS/Jülich Supercomputing Center)
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