Constructing HPC based on open standard method

25 years ago, large, expensive, custom supercomputers dominated the HPC server market, and the standards-based cluster architecture began to grow rapidly in the 2002, and in 2009, the standards-based cluster architecture, which accounted for 64% per cent of the 8.6 billion dollar market, became the HPC server market. According to IDC forecasts, the market based on the standardized cluster structure will exceed 10 billion dollars in 2014 years.

As you can see, the HPC cluster architecture is emerging, and change means opportunities as well as challenges, so what has happened to the user's demand for HPC? How to meet the needs of users to the maximum, and then promote the application and development of HPC? IT168 reporter interviewed Dell (China) Limited public sector general manager of the education industry Lu Songqin.

Lu Songqin, general manager of the public sector education industry, Dell (China) Ltd.

Characteristics of HPC market and users ' demand in cluster era

"The era of cluster architecture, the market characteristics of HPC are mainly two aspects: on the one hand, many large HPC users will continue to expand their HPC clusters to meet the needs of computing; On the other hand, the rise of HPC clusters has made HPC a more populist development, and HPC is no longer a government or research institution's patent, Many small and medium-sized organizations can also begin to use, for example, some faculties and laboratories in many colleges and universities have started using HPC for disciplinary research, Lu Songqin said in an interview.

Lu Songqin said the demand for HPC users is very diverse, "some users want to simplify the application process because many HPC users are not experts in it, but experts in a field who do not want to focus too much on the purchase, installation, maintenance, and upgrades of HPC cluster systems. It's about trying to focus more on the profession. Of course, the stability of the machine and the maintenance time after the failure is also very important. ”

Dell's HPC Strategy

User-oriented-this has always been a Dell-respected, and always put the user's needs in the first place is also the company's wisdom. Lu Songqin said that in the HPC strategy, Dell is also adhering to the same philosophy, and around the user-oriented core values, from the open, service, innovation and other three aspects to meet the needs of users in the HPC application process:

Open standardization: The early supercomputer is gradually discarded by many users, closed is a big reason, because the closure of the user is very bad. Lu Songqin said Dell is committed to partnering with industry-leading partners to build a complete ecosystem of solutions in China to provide customers with open, performance and cost-effective solutions. Its partners have Intel, AMD and other hardware companies, there are open management software such as platform, as well as Microsoft, users can choose their own needs and preferences for their own manufacturers.

DELL HPC Partner Ecosystem

Deep Service: In order to enable users to put more effort into the business, and really do at the business level to support users, Dell has recruited a large number of industry experts in various fields, such as genomics, oil, meteorology, for various fields of HPC users to provide professional support.

In a project with CERN, CERN has a Large Hadron Collider project that specializes in computing atomic collisions, mainly to simulate microscopic particles produced when the planet explodes, and to find new sources of energy for humans, Lu Songqin said.

Innovation in important areas: to help users better use Hpc,dell in many important areas of innovation, such as HPC data architecture, HPC platform design, optimized rack design, etc. At the same time, for a number of new technology trends, such as GPU, Dell in the form of collaboration to provide users with the appropriate technology, such as Dell and Nvidia have very close cooperation.

HPC solutions based on open standards

Dell provides users with an open standard end-to-end HPC solution, as shown in the following illustration, in partnership with partners, and provides users with a high level of flexibility through building blocks.

Dell's open standard HPC cluster solution uses the 11th generation Dell PowerEdge Server, users can choose blades, racks and other models, the network can choose Ethernet or InfiniBand connection, operating system level can choose Windows or Linux, Users can also choose to compute based on GPU.

Dell based on open standard HPC architecture (as can be seen from the previous illustration, Dell offers users a variety of choices that provide high robustness, reliability, and scalability)

Figure: Building a HPC system with building blocks, this way gives users a lot of flexibility and can easily scale the system.

Editor: In the era of high customization of supercomputers, the competitiveness of the HPC market is mainly embodied in user technology and low production customization, which is obviously a disadvantage for Dell, which is designed for high production, standardization and reliability. However, the rise of the cluster architecture provides a good opportunity for Dell to expand in the HPC market, and Dell has wisely seized the opportunity to be one of the world's largest HPC suppliers.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)