The most powerful supercomputer in Chinese universities! Calculate gravitational waves and photons

Mengchen sent this from Aofei Temple
Quantum Bit Report | Public Account QbitAI

Which university in China has the most powerful supercomputer?

Shanghai Jiao Tong University The newly opened Scientific Computing Center won the first place.

How powerful is it? The peak double-precision computing power exceeds 6PFlops (6 quadrillion times per second) .

Even if it is compared with the top universities in the world, it can be ranked in the first tier , second only to MIT, and surpassing Cambridge and Harvard.

High performance computing has become the third paradigm of human scientific research after theoretical science and experimental science .

In recent years, many universities have built their own computing centers to meet the research needs of teachers and students, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University is at the forefront.

On their " Jiewosuan " computing platform, cloud computing, artificial intelligence computing, scientific computing, and big data storage platforms were already available.

From the real-time operation status, we can see that various colleges, research institutes and school-affiliated hospitals are actively queuing up to use the machine and are operating at high load all year round.

From the perspective of disciplines, materials, mechanics, physics, biology, and medicine all require computing power, and resources are very tight.

It is precisely to solve this problem that Shanghai Jiao Tong University has now added a new scientific computing center.

New Scientific Computing Center Established The Tsung-Dao Lee Institute focuses on cosmology and particle physics. How will supercomputers be used in research in these fields?

From astronomy to quantum

Shanghai Jiao Tong University previously had a high-performance computing cluster π2.0 , with a double-precision peak of 2.1PFlops . Teachers and students from various departments have carried out multi-field research work on this high-performance computing platform.

Take Professor Zhang Jun from the School of Physics as an example. One of his research directions, the gravitational wave problem , cannot be separated from supercomputers.

This month he even ranked fourth in computing platform utilization.

According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravitational waves are "ripples in space-time", which are disturbances in space-time caused by massive objects when they move.

This disturbance decays with distance, and gravitational waves have long been difficult to observe directly.

Only major events in the universe, such as black hole mergers, can produce gravitational waves that can be detected with current human technology.

But there are a lot of noise signals in the vast universe , and identifying gravitational waves from them is another big challenge.

At this time, the simulation of black hole mergers, which can only be done with powerful computing power, has become an important research method.

Using supercomputers to solve the equations of general relativity can produce numerical simulations of gravitational waves, helping researchers identify the gravitational waves from the noisy signals detected.

In addition to macroscopic astrophysics, microscopic particle physics also requires enormous computing power.

A working group at the School of Physics and Astronomy of Shanghai Jiao Tong University is also developing a new method to analyze the optical properties of seawater using a camera system .

They used supercomputers to simulate the path of photons in water and how photons were scattered and absorbed by water molecules.

One simulation requires 5 million photons , and traversing the entire parameter space requires nearly 4,000 simulations .

In addition to physical research, researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University also modified the operating process of AlphaFold based on the supercomputing platform .

The developed ParaFold optimizes parallel computing, making the computing efficiency 14 times that of the original process .

Now that we have a new scientific computing center, which will add 6PFlops to the existing 2.1PFlops, we believe it will help Shanghai Jiao Tong University students and teachers make more scientific breakthroughs.

Another point worth noting is that the new scientific computing center is built inside the newly opened laboratory building of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute and covers an area of ​​only 300 square meters .

In this building

Usually, the impression given by a supercomputing center is that it is an independent building. A supercomputing center that can handle 6PFlops must be at least half the size of a football field .

This time, the scientific computing center was built in a laboratory building, using only 14 cabinets, and achieved computing power that could only be achieved by 70 cabinets in a general data center.

The computing density is five times that of a general data center , and the computer room area is less than 1/10 of that of a general computer room .

How was it possible to greatly save construction costs in Shanghai, where every inch of land is valuable?

Not only does it take up less space, it also includes winter heating

In order to improve computing density, the supercomputing center must use powerful enough hardware configuration.

Shanghai Jiao Tong University's " Siyuan No. 1 " high-performance computer uses Intel's latest Whitley platform Icelake CPU.

The specific model is Xeon Platium 8358, 32 cores, and the main frequency is 2.6Ghz.

No expense was spared on the GPU, and NVIDIA's flagship A100 was used directly.

The server uses Lenovo's ThinkSystem SD650 V2 and SD650-N V2, equipped with Lenovo's "Poseidon" warm water cooling solution.

The warm water cooling technology here is the key to saving floor space.

The cooling water directly contacts the CPU, memory and other heat-generating components, and removes the heat through flow circulation, eliminating the need for a fan.

Because water's thermal conductivity is much stronger than air, it can be placed more densely, reaching 5 times the calculated density.

Furthermore, because 50°C warm water is used , the space for chillers and heat exchangers is saved, which can further reduce the floor space of the compressor room.

Warm water cooling technology can also improve energy utilization efficiency (PUE, Power Usage Effectiveness) .

The average PUE of Chinese data centers is 1.9, which means that for every kilowatt-hour of electricity used for computing, an additional 0.9 kilowatt-hour is required to cool the computing equipment.

The PUE value of Shanghai Jiao Tong University's new computing center can reach 1.1, saving 42% of electricity and carbon dioxide emissions.

Finally, the outlet water temperature of the warm water cooling system is 60°C , so the waste heat is not wasted.

In winter, the waste heat will be used to heat the area connecting the spheres in the middle of the laboratory building.

It can also be used for heating hot water in the cafeteria kitchen, dehumidifying the basement, and controlling the air conditioning temperature in the topological quantum and time projection laboratories.

△ Spherical area of ​​the experimental building

According to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the waste heat recovery and reuse solution can reduce carbon emissions by another 950 tons, or about 10%, each year, while saving more than 1.5 million yuan in costs each year.

The laboratory building of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute was officially opened recently and has become the new home for all staff of the institute.

It seems that this winter, scientific researchers will not only be able to enjoy the powerful computing power provided by supercomputers, but also feel the warmth brought by the computing center.

In fact, the construction of the new scientific computing center of Shanghai Jiao Tong University only started in April .

At that time, it was the 125th anniversary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing decided to donate 100 million yuan personally to build a first-class high-performance computing center in the country's universities, which was delivered within the year.

At the unveiling ceremony of the Scientific Computing Center on December 14, Jiaotong University also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Lenovo Group.

Lenovo Group will continue to invest 200 million yuan in technology research and development, talent training, investment incubation and other fields in the next three years.

The investment includes the establishment of joint laboratories, joint training of professional master/doctoral students, the establishment of scholarships, entrepreneurial incubation funds and other industrial research cooperation projects.

So why did Shanghai Jiao Tong University choose to cooperate with Lenovo?

On the one hand, Yang Yuanqing is an alumnus of the Class of 1981 of the Computer Science Department of Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

There is also a little story here.

When Yang Yuanqing was studying at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, there were very few computers in the entire computer department. Most of them were donated by an earlier alumnus entrepreneur, Wang An . At that time, he was determined to give back to his alma mater in the future.

On the other hand , Lenovo is also very strong as a supercomputer supplier.

As a manufacturer, Lenovo has ranked first in market share on the global supercomputer list of TOP500 for eight consecutive years.

In addition to donating to Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Lenovo supercomputing will also provide weather forecast services accurate to the minute and hundred-meter levels at the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.

Regarding the new scientific computing center and the new laboratory building, the new director of the Tsung-Dao Lee Institute, Academician Zhang Jie, once made a prediction:

The Tsung-Dao Lee Institute aims to be built into a world-class cutting-edge basic research institution, form a "Shanghai School", and play the role of an innovation engine for a new type of R&D institution.

let us wait and see.

References:
[1] https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/5iOPmQrkbbZJEQiZv7fRAw [2] https://account.hpc.sjtu.edu.cn/top/ [3] https://github.com/Zuricho/ParallelFold [4] https://www.lenovo.com/tw/zh/data-center/neptune/