The choice of the XT-3 is the result of a collaborative project with the Paul-Scherrer Institute (PSI) called "Horizon“. In point of fact the system is predestined to open the door to new horizons of computing capacity. The XT-3 consists of 1'100 2.6 GHz AMD Opteron processors that are connected with one another by Cray's SeaStar high-bandwidth low-latency interconnect. At its peak performance it can carry out 5,9 trillion calculations per second (5.9 Teraflops). This means that Horizon increases the previous computing capacity of CSCS in a major way, making it five times more powerful and putting it once again under the top 100 on the list of the 500 most powerful computers (1).

Among the most powerful in Europe

The system that now lies at the service of the scientific community is one of the most powerful computers in Europe. The system’s special high performance applications, especially developed for "Red Storm“ architecture, represent a benchmark for systems that run on standard microprocessors according to CSCS. In addition, Horizon has a total memory size of 2.2 Terabytes and a global parallel file system of 28 Terabyte based on Lustre.

The Cray XT-3 belongs to the third generation of Massively Parallel Processing systems (MPP). MPP is the coordinated processing of a programme by multiple processors that work on different parts of the programme, with each processor using its own operating system and memory. A massively parallel computer is a parallel computer that has a great number (sometimes thousands) of units at its disposal that work independently as a supercomputing cluster.

Wide co-operation network

"We are very happy to have new computing capacity. It allows us to carry out complex, high-performance simulations on thousands of processors–until now we weren't able to do this,“ said CSCS Director Marie-Christine Sawley at the inauguration. Both Ulrich W. Suter, ETH Vice-president Research, and the Vice-president of the ETH Board, Ernst Buschor, participated in the inauguration.

New computing dimensions in Manno: the XT-3 supercomputer "Horizon", manufactured by the US Cray Inc. (Picture: CSCS). large

With the Horizon project CSCS and PSI had now established a new, long-term form of collaboration, said Marie-Christine Sawley. Further co-operation was planned with the Oak Ridge National Lab, the Sandia National Laboratories and the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center. Horizon would help "Swiss researchers achieve important breakthroughs" in, among others, environmental sciences, life sciences and material sciences, as well as in chemistry and astronomy.

Pending appeal from the competition

It must be said that the acquisition of the Cray XT-3 was not uncontested. A Zurich daily, the "Tages-Anzeiger", reported last week that the US company Linux Networx, an unsuccessful competitor in the system evaluation process, had lodged an appeal against the decision with the Appeal Commission of Switzerland's Supreme Court. Asked about this, Dominik Ulmer, Chief Operating Officer at CSCS, pointed out that the Appeals Commission had not granted the appeal delaying status. The contract with Cray could therefore be concluded despite the pending appeal process.

"Most cases like this one, delay status is usually granted in order to prevent the creation of an accomplished fact," explains Ulmer. "In view of this, we are very optimistic as to the result of the process.“ Especially since the entire acquisition process, from the drawing up of specifications to the delivery and publication of the final decision, had been accompanied throughout by external experts in public procurement law..