1. Supercomputers 2 Prof. Sin-Min Lee Department of Computer Science

2. Cluster Computers

3. Clusters on the Rise Using clusters of small machines to build a supercomputer is not a new concept. Another of the world's top machines, housed at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, was constructed from 2,304 Xeon processors. The machine was build by Utah-based Linux Networx.Lawrence Livermore Clustering technology has meant that traditional big-iron leaders like Cray (Nasdaq: CRAY) and IBM have new competition from makers of smaller machines. Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), among other companies, has sold high-powered computing clusters to research institutions.Cray Dell

4. Cluster Computers Each computer in a cluster is a complete computer by itself Each computer in a cluster is a complete computer by itself CPU CPU Memory Memory Disk Disk etc etc Computers communicate with each other via some interconnection bus Computers communicate with each other via some interconnection bus

5. Cluster Computers Typically used where one computer does not have enough capacity to do the expected work Typically used where one computer does not have enough capacity to do the expected work Large Servers Large Servers Cheaper than building one GIANT computer Cheaper than building one GIANT computer

6. Although not new, supercomputing clustering technology still is impressive. It works by farming out chunks of data to individual machines, adding that clustering works better for some types of computing problems than others. For example, a cluster would not be ideal to compete against IBM's Deep Blue supercomputer in a chess match; in this case, all the data must be available to one processor at the same moment -- the machine operates much in the same way as the human brain handles tasks. However, a cluster would be ideal for the processing of seismic data for oil exploration, because that computing job can be divided into many smaller tasks.

7. Cluster Computers Need to break up work among the computers in the cluster Need to break up work among the computers in the cluster Example: Microsoft.com Search Engine Example: Microsoft.com Search Engine 6 computers running SQL Server 6 computers running SQL Server Each has a copy of the MS Knowledge Base Each has a copy of the MS Knowledge Base Search requests come to one computer Search requests come to one computer Sends request to one of the 6 Sends request to one of the 6 Attempts to keep all 6 busy Attempts to keep all 6 busy

8. The Virginia Tech Mac supercomputer should be fully functional and in use by January 2004. It will be used for research into nanoscale electronics, quantum chemistry, computational chemistry, aerodynamics, molecular statics, computational acoustics and the molecular modeling of proteins.

9. Visual Tour

10. Current Cray Products Cray X1 is the only Cray’s product with a unique vector CPU Cray X1 is the only Cray’s product with a unique vector CPU Competitors are: Fujitsu, NEC, HP Competitors are: Fujitsu, NEC, HP Cray XT3 and XD1 use AMD Opteron CPUs (series 100 and series 200 accordingly) Cray XT3 and XD1 use AMD Opteron CPUs (series 100 and series 200 accordingly) You can find full product specifications as well as additional information on current systems at www.cray.com You can find full product specifications as well as additional information on current systems at www.cray.com

11. Performance Measurements Performance is measured in teraflops Performance is measured in teraflops Linpack is a standard benchmark Linpack is a standard benchmark Performance is also measured in memory bandwidth & latency, disk performance, interconnects, internal IO, reliability, and others Performance is also measured in memory bandwidth & latency, disk performance, interconnects, internal IO, reliability, and others For example: For example: My home system, Athlon 750, gives about 34 megaflops (34*10^6 flops) My home system, Athlon 750, gives about 34 megaflops (34*10^6 flops) Current mid-range supercomputers give about 40 teraflops(40*10^12 flops) which is 1,176,470 times faster Current mid-range supercomputers give about 40 teraflops(40*10^12 flops) which is 1,176,470 times faster

12. Scalable Architecture in XT-3

13. Is Cray a good deal? Typical Cost approximately $30 million and above Typical Cost approximately $30 million and above Useful lifetime – 6 years Useful lifetime – 6 years Most customers use supercomputers at 90% - 98% load Most customers use supercomputers at 90% - 98% load Clustered supercomputers and machines build around common desktop components (AMD/Intel CPUs, memory chips, motherboards, and etc.) are significantly cheaper Clustered supercomputers and machines build around common desktop components (AMD/Intel CPUs, memory chips, motherboards, and etc.) are significantly cheaper

14. Future Cray’s “Red Storm” System in Sandia National Laboratories is running on Linux OS Cray’s “Red Storm” System in Sandia National Laboratories is running on Linux OS Current Cost $90 million Current Cost $90 million Uses 11,648 AMD Opteron CPUs Uses 11,648 AMD Opteron CPUs Current operational speed – 41.5 teraflops Current operational speed – 41.5 teraflops Uses unique SeaStar chip, which passes messages between thousands of CPUs Uses unique SeaStar chip, which passes messages between thousands of CPUs Upgrades are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005 using dual-core Opteron Upgrades are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2005 using dual-core Opteron Expected to reach 100 teraflops by the end of 2005 Expected to reach 100 teraflops by the end of 2005

21. Computers and Weather forecasting WeatherWeather forecasting

22. Menu Weather forecasting Explanation OverviewOverview picture DataData collection Sensors Data logginglogging The Grid SystemSystem WeatherWeather station Radiosonde Satellites Radar WeatherWeather ships Supercomputers Parallel ProcessingProcessing Software Pressing Weather forecasting on any slide will bring you back to this menu

23. During the last two decades the Met Office has used state-of-the-art supercomputers for numerical weather prediction and more recently, also for predictions of global climate. WeatherWeather forecasting This is a picture of a supercomputer

24. WeatherWeather forecasting Weather Weather forecasters are helped by several things. These include:- The computer makes millions of calculations. 1. The computer’s advice 2. Information from radar 3. Information from satellite pictures The sums are called differential equations Before the computer can do the calculations, data has to be collected first.

25. WeatherWeather forecasting Collecting data on the weather is very important. Without the data, the computer could not do the calculations that enable it to make weather predictions. The next slide shows where the data comes from. It also shows where the forecasts are sent. Always remember that the forecasters are highly trained people and they use their judgement and expertise to make their forecast based on the information the computer gives them and the information from the radar and the satellite pictures.

26. Supercomputer Radio-sonde Weather ship and weather buoys Satellites Radar WeatherWeather forecasting Weather stations

27. Forecaster Supercomputer Global forecast services Aviation Shipping National and International Forecast Services up to 7 days ahead. Radio-sonde Weather ship and weather buoys Satellites Radar WeatherWeather forecasting Weather stations

28. Forecaster Supercomputer Global forecast services Aviation Shipping National and International Forecast Services up to 7 days ahead. Radio-sonde Weather ship and weather buoys Satellites Radar WeatherWeather forecasting Weather stations

29. WeatherWeather forecasting Data is collected continuously for the computer from the following:- 1. Weather stations 2. Automated weather stations 3. Satellites 4. Radar 5. Radiosondes 6. Weather ships 7. Mini-radiosondes 8. Radar 9. Aeroplanes 10. Drifting buoys

30. WeatherWeather forecasting The data measurements are made by sensors A sensor is a transducer which responds to some physical property such as pressure, temperature, rate of flow. A transducer is an electronic component which converts energy from one form to another. We want the transducers to send signals to the computer in the Met. Office.

31. 1. Temperature.. Air, surface and subsurface temp. 2. Atmospheric Pressure 3. Wind speed 4. Wind direction 5. Humidity 6. Rainfall WeatherWeather forecasting 7. Sunshine The measurements needed include:-

32. WeatherWeather forecasting These are some of the sensors used to collect data.

33. WeatherWeather forecasting Data logging is the capture and storage of data for future use. All the measurements from the sensors are stored because:- So data logging is used in weather forecasting. The computer processes the data in batches People need to refer back to weather data for many reasons

34. WeatherWeather forecasting The next slides explain more about data collection. To jump to the details of the computers, click on the computer.

35. Mountain effects Formation of clouds Formation of rain and snow Friction Radiation from the earth Radiation from the atmosphere Radiation from the sun Evaporation and heat exchange The atmosphere is split up into a 3-D grid. Each land based grid is about 60km. Sea WeatherWeather forecasting

36. The vertical grid you just saw only had 5 levels. The Met Office uses far more, some computer models work on 40 vertical levels. WeatherWeather forecasting For UK forecasts the horizontal grid is 15km. For the global forecasts the horizontal grid is 60km

37. Sea We need to measure pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind directions as well as rainfall, cloud cover,etc in as many grid spaces as possible WeatherWeather forecasting

38. Sea WeatherWeather forecasting Weather stations are used here.

39. A weather station sends signals back to the Met Office computer. The instruments measure pressure, temperature and humidity. WeatherWeather forecasting Some weather stations are automated. These send their measurements back to the computerdirectly. Picture thanks to Sparholt school who have a great web site www.hants.gov.uk/sparsholtschoolscentre

40. We need to measure pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind directions as well as rainfall, cloud cover,etc Radiosondes are used up here. 20 km Sea WeatherWeather forecasting

41. A radiosonde sends signals back to the Met Office computer. They are attached to a balloon carrying instruments. The instruments measure pressure, temperature and humidity. By measuring the track of the radiosonde, the wind direction and speed can be calculated. WeatherWeather forecasting Photo courtesy of the British Atmospheric Data Centre

42. All over the world, radiosondes are released at midday and midnight UTC. UTC = Universal Time Co-ordinated WeatherWeather forecasting

43. UTC = Universal Time Co-ordinated Hawaii 2 am Atlantic Daylight 9 am Baghdad 3 pm West Australian Standard 7 pm UTC is also known as GMT Greenwich Mean Time Here are some of the times when the radiosondes are released to correspond with the ones in Britain at midday. WeatherWeather forecasting

44. Sea We need to measure pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind directions as well as rainfall, cloud cover,etc Minisondes are used here. 5 km Everest is 8.85 Kms high. So we have shown you a very high mountain! WeatherWeather forecasting

45. A minisonde system takes measurements at 5Km above sea level. Both radiosondes and minisondes use radio waves to transmit the data readings to the computers WeatherWeather forecasting

46. Sea We need to measure pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind directions as well as rainfall, cloud cover,etc Aeroplanes send data too. 10 km WeatherWeather forecasting

47. Sea We need to measure pressure, temperature, wind speed and wind directions as well as rainfall, cloud cover,etc Satellites send data too. 36,000km WeatherWeather forecasting The Geostationary satellites are 36,000 Km above earth.

48. There are two types of satellites. Geostationary. These stay in the same spot. They orbit the earth at exactly the same speed as the earth rotates. They are very high above earth - 36,000 km. 5 geostationary satellites are enough to give global coverage. WeatherWeather forecasting Polar orbiting. These orbit the earth about 14 times a day. They orbit at 1000 km above the earth.

49. WeatherWeather forecasting A Geostationary satellite stays in the same place with respect to earth all the time A Polar orbiting satellite moves above the earth’s surface

50. WeatherWeather forecasting Picture courtesy of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites and photo courtesy of Dundee University. The URL ( Uniform Resource Locator ) www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/tour.html will tell you more about satellites if you are interested Meteosat: a geostationary satellite. It sends microwave signals back to earth. The satellite’s signals are received by antennae. ©Eumetsat 2003

51. This is a Polar Orbiting Satellite WeatherWeather forecasting The satellite can take readings across the entire earth during the course of one day.

52. Sea WeatherWeather forecasting Radar systems are used here. Radar stands for radio detection and ranging. Radio waves are transmitted, when they hit a rain cloud they bounce back to earth and measurements can be taken.

53. WeatherWeather forecasting There is a network of radar systems covering Britain. This is a radar station. The computer and the forecaster receive data from the radar systems. Radar measurements let the forecaster and the computer know if the radar has seen rain clouds.

54. Sea WeatherWeather forecasting There are weather ships out to sea There are also buoys taking weather measurements in the sea

55. This is a Weather ship. WeatherWeather forecasting Buoys are used at sea more than weather ships these days. They send their data automatically back to the computer. Thanks to www.gdfcartophily.co.uk

56. WeatherWeather forecasting The Meteorological Office uses supercomputers. These are the largest computers in the world. There will be a new supercomputer in the Met Office’s new location at Exeter. The Met Office has re-located (moved) to Exeter from Bracknell. Bracknell is near London. Exeter is in the South West of England. Bracknell Exeter

57. WeatherWeather forecasting We store Gigabytes (one thousand million bytes 10 9 ) of data on the Hard drives in our school. Supercomputers have stores for Terabytes of data. A Terabyte is one million, million bytes, 10 12 bytes. A supercomputer is a very large computer, which works very, very fast. It is about 1000 times more powerful than a PC. It also has an enormous store (memory).

58. WeatherWeather forecasting A supercomputer is a very large computer, which works very, very fast. It is about 1000 times more powerful than a PC The Met Office supercomputers are Massively Parallel Processor machines. It usually has many processors working in parallel to achieve the fast processing time.

59. Massively Parallel Processor machines use Parallel processing Parallel processing is the simultaneous use of several processors to perform a single job. A job may be split into a number of tasks each of which may be processed by any available processor. WeatherWeather forecasting

60. WeatherWeather forecasting Parallel processing splits jobs up and gives different processors tasks. These all have to be brought together. When a computer uses several processors in parallel it is known as parallel processing. Parallel processing is difficult to program

61. WeatherWeather forecasting How does parallel processing work?. 287 14 21 1*7 A 2*7 B 4*7 3*7 CD Let’s give four processors A, B, C, D a sum each

62. WeatherWeather forecasting If processor A did all four sums it would take longer. Parallel processing is very complicated to program but it does make it faster to do loads and loads of sums.

63. Massively Parallel Processor machines. MPP systems use a distributed hierarchy of memory. This just means that they have to have a system of accessing the memory available. MPP systems rely on very high bandwidth communications to move data between memory and between different processors so that they are all kept busy during program execution. WeatherWeather forecasting

65. References http://research.microsoft.com/users/gbell/craytalk/sld06 6.htm http://research.microsoft.com/users/gbell/craytalk/sld06 6.htm http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsupercom puter.htm http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blsupercom puter.htm http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/cray.htm http://americanhistory.si.edu/csr/comphist/cray.htm http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/cray.html http://web.mit.edu/invent/iow/cray.html www.top500.org www.top500.org http://www.spikynorman.dsl.pipex.com/CrayWWWStuff/ http://www.spikynorman.dsl.pipex.com/CrayWWWStuff/ http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,3902 0357,39162182,00.htm http://news.zdnet.co.uk/hardware/emergingtech/0,3902 0357,39162182,00.htm