Spanish Supercomputing Network
The Spanish Supercomputing Network (RES) is a distributed infrastructure involving the interconnexion of 13 supercomputers which work together to offer High Performance Computing resources to the scientific community. It is coordinated by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC).
The RES is a Unique Scientific and Technical Infrastructure (ICTS) distributed throughout Spain, which aims to support the development of top-quality cutting-edge research.
Currently the RES is composed of 13 supercomputers located in different research centres and universities:
- MareNostrum & MinoTauro at Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC)
- Magerit at the Centro de Supercomputación y Visualización de Madrid (CeSViMa), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
- FinisTerrae2 at the Fundación Pública Galega Centro Tecnológico de Supercomputación de Galicia (CESGA)
- LaPalma at the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC)
- Altamira at the Instituto de Física de Cantabria (IFCA) de la Universidad de Cantabria
- Picasso at the Universidad de Málaga (UMA)
- Tirant at the Universitat de València (UV)
- Caesaraugusta at the Instituto de Biocomputación y Física de Sistemas Complejos (BIFI) de la Universidad de Zaragoza
- Caléndula at the Fundación Centro de Supercomputación de Castilla y León (FCSCL)
- Pirineus at the Consorci de Serveis Universitari de Catalunya (CSUC)
- Lusitania at CénitS-COMPUTAEX
- Cibeles at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM)
History
The Spanish Supercomputing Network was created in March 2007 to increase the needs of computing resources in Spain. To achieve this, MareNostrum and Magerit supercomputers were upgraded and the old nodes from MareNostrum were used to create five nodes (Altamira, CesarAugusta, LaPalma, Picasso, Tirant) of the network.
In 2009 Atlante supercomputer joined the network. The software of the supercomputers was upgraded to the same level.
In 2011 Magerit was upgraded and became the most powerful supercomputer in Spain and of this network.
In 2014 it opens in Tenerife, Teide-HPC supercomputer, which is currently the second most powerful in Spain.[1] Its calculation capacity is 10,000 office computers.[2]
In 2015, 5 new nodes became part of the network: Finisterrae II, del CESGA, Pirineus, del Consorcio de Servicios Universitarios de Cataluña (CSUC), Lusitania, de la Fundación Computación y Tecnologías Avanzadas de Extremadura, Caléndula, del Centro de Supercomputación de Castilla y León, Cibeles, de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid [3] [4]
Use of the resources
An Access Committee (a group of 44 researchers who assess the importance of each project) controls the access to the computing resources:
- Every researcher who wants to use the network must send a project to the Access Committee
- All projects are evaluated by the access committee.
- The best projects are accepted. The committee assigns several resources of one of the supercomputers for a 4-month period.
If one project needs more computing resources, the leader of the project can ask for resources in the next 4-month period.
Each institution controls 20% of the resources of its node. CeSViMa controls about 40% of the computer resources of Magerit due to the nodes owned by the Technical University of Madrid. With the upgraded of Magerit in 2011 CeSViMa increased its contribution to the network 5 times, despite only 20% of the computer being scheduled by the network.
References
- ^ Teide, el segundo superordenador más potente de España, ya está entre los 130 mejores del mundo
- ^ Teide, el segundo superordenador más potente de España, ya está entre los 130 mejores del mundo
- ^ http://www.cesga.es/es/actualidad/novas/amosar/5337
- ^ http://www.bsc.es/marenostrum-support-services/res
External links
- RES in Barcelona Supercomputing Center website, current coordinator of Spanish Supercomputing Network.