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Science Support for Phase 4

Science Support for Phase 4. Dr Alan D Simpson HPCx Project Director EPCC Technical Director. Overview. User Support Team Phase 4 Complementary Capability Computing Science Support. User Support Team. Now fully staffed Liz Sim: User Support Manager started mid-April

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Science Support for Phase 4

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  1. Science Support for Phase 4 Dr Alan D Simpson HPCx Project Director EPCC Technical Director

  2. Overview • User Support Team • Phase 4 • Complementary Capability Computing • Science Support HPCx User Group

  3. User Support Team • Now fully staffed • Liz Sim: User Support Manager started mid-April • Initially worked in software engineering • 8 years experience in Service Support • Commercial background at Sun and Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) supporting internal & external clients • Andy Turner: started in July • Background in Computational Chemistry research • Support and training on Chemistry cluster • Irina Nazarova • 12 years at EPCC • Expertise in web, reporting and publicity HPCx User Group

  4. Phase 4 Overview • EPSRC are funding a 14-month extension to HPCx • New end-date January 2010 • Upgrade to Power 5+ • Reduced running costs (power and maintenance) • Decreasing science support activity • Focus on Complementary Capability Computing • Learn about exploiting multiple services HPCx User Group

  5. Hardware Upgrade • Planned as part of Phase 4 • Cluster of 120 IBM System p5 Model 575+ servers • Each node contains 16 * 1.9GHz processors • 118 nodes will be equipped with 32Gb memory • Remaining 2 nodes (32 processors) will have 128Gb memory to permit large memory jobs • Minimal downtime expected • No change to front-ends, switches or filesystems • More details in IBM Talk HPCx User Group

  6. Complementary Capability Computing • Maximise benefits from HECToR and HPCx • For benefit of UK computational research • Workshop on Complementary Capability proposal • Simple transfer of resources • Agreed and advertised • Advance booking • Now working • Queues for long jobs on HPCx • Increasingly popular • Short debugging queues on HPCx • >1000 jobs per month HPCx User Group

  7. Complementarity Challenge Call • EPSRC Call raised in line with the decision to extend the HPCx service into 2010 • Focus on complementary capability computing • 12 month grants available starting January 2009 • Call ran from 30th July to 11th Sep 2008 • 11 technical assessments have been completed and returned to prospective applicants • HPCx time totalling around 30 million AUs has been requested as a result of this call • Funding decisions due in 2008 HPCx User Group

  8. Phase 4 Staffing • Number of Science Support staff tapers down throughout Phase 4 • to keep total cost of extension as low as possible • Have agreed with EPSRC that this profile is flexible • responding to user needs • Key target will be to provide support for Complementarity Challenge projects HPCx User Group

  9. Principles of Science Support • No formal Annual Plan • Allowing focus on responsive support • Helpdesk will remain the key element of support throughout Phase 4 • Reduced effort available for • Training: only if leveraged with other activities • Technical Reports: to aid understanding of Complementarity and future services • Terascaling: modest effort e.g., in support of Complementary Challenge projects HPCx User Group

  10. Support for Complementarity • Key justification for Phase 4 was exploring novel methods of exploiting HPC systems • Help EPSRC plan for future services • Most of Science Support effort will be targeted towards this • New support team: Complementarity • Led by Alan Gray • Please contact us if you may want such support • support@hpcx.ac.uk HPCx User Group

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