high-performance computing


Managing energy efficiency at NASA


Robert Roe learns that the NASA advanced


supercomputing division (NAS) is optimising energy efficiency and water usage to maximise the facility’s potential to deliver computing services to its user community


consumption of large supercomputers. Te Top500 is a prime example of this. Each of the top 10 systems consumes megawatts of power, with the very largest consuming in excess of 15 megawatts. Tese systems represent the largest


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systems in the world and are not typical of the average user, but they do demonstrate the limits of today’s HPC technology. Without sufficient action to reduce power consumption, the next generation of systems will continue to drive up power requirements. William Tigpen, advanced computing


branch chief for the NAS, commented: ‘If you look at any of the top systems they are all drawing multiple megawatts of power. Tey are taking somewhere in the region of a 33 to 50 per cent of that power, just for cooling.’ ‘Tese systems draw a large amount of


power, but if we can save something on the order of a third of the power by doing things in a smarter way I think it is our duty to do that,’ commented Tigpen. ‘We should be good stewards of the earth.’ One approach to solving this problem


is being developed by the NASA advanced supercomputing division (NAS) as part of


www.scientific-computing.com l


ll of today’s modern supercomputers must be optimised in some way for energy efficiency because of the huge power


IF WE CAN SAVE SOMETHING ON THE ORDER OF A THIRD OF THE POWER BY DOING THINGS IN A SMARTER WAY I THINK IT IS OUR DUTY TO DO THAT


its high-end computing capability (HECC) project. NASA hopes to solve some of its future power issues by developing a modular HPC cluster using energy efficient technology and making use of evaporative cooling and the local climate to remove the need for much of the water and power used to cool the system.


@scwmagazine


NAS operates NASA’s High-End


Computing Capability Project, which is funded through the agency’s High-End Computing Program and its Strategic Capabilities Assets Program. NAS supports more than HECC supports 1,200 users from around the US, with more than 500 projects running at any one time. Te NAS Division is part of


the Exploration Technology Directorate at Ames Research Center. Te Directorate’s mission is to create innovative and reliable technologies for NASA missions.Te NAS facilities latest supercomputer Electra is a 16-rack, 1,152-node cluster from SGI which delivers 1.2-petaflop peak performance (1.09 Pflop/s LINPACK rating #96 on November 2016 TOP500 list). Tis new system is the first iteration of this


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