Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 7
Texas Advanced Computing Center
Karl W. Schulz
The Texas Advanced Computing Center, University of Texas at Austin
7.1
HPC at TACC :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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7.2
I/O Hardware ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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7.2.1
Performance :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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7.2.2
Parallel File Systems|A Shared Resource ::::::::::::::
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7.3
Conclusion ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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Bibliography ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at the University of Texas at
Austin (UT Austin) develops and deploys an integrated infrastructure of ad-
vanced computing resources to enhance the research and education activities
of the faculty, staff, and students at UT Austin, and in Texas and across the
United States through its involvement in various state and national programs.
This infrastructure includes HPC systems, advanced scientific visualization
(SciVis) systems, data servers and storage/archival systems, grid and cloud
computing servers, IT systems, high-bandwidth networks, and a comprehen-
sive software environment comprising applications, tools, libraries, databases,
and grid software. TACC services include technical documentation, consult-
ing, and training in HPC, SciVis, and distributed computing.
7.1 HPC at TACC
TACC operates several large-scale HPC computing systems, the largest
and most recent of which is the Stampede supercomputer. Stampede entered
production operations in January 2013 and is a high performance Linux clus-
ter consisting of 6,400 computes nodes, each with dual, eight-core processors
for a total of 102,400 available CPU cores. The dual CPUs in each host are
Intel Xeon E5 (Sandy Bridge) processors running at 2.7 GHz with 2 GB/-
core of memory and a three-level cache. The compute nodes also include
one Intel Xeon Phi co-processor in each of the 6,400 hosts (plus 480 hosts
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