Simulation run using large data sets from Tech-X customer
The Terascala managed storage appliance has allowed Tech-X scientists to run fast detailed simulations. High resolution simulation results enable our customers to understand physical processes and greatly decrease their production and manufacturing costs.
Boston, Mass. (PRWEB) August 21, 2014
Terascala, the industry leader in high-performance computing (HPC) management software, today announced that Tech-X Corporation (Boulder, Colo.) is using a high-performance storage appliance managed by Terascala software to help the company prototype big data driven scientific applications. Terascala’s software when combined with leading compute and storage systems creates the highest performance and most reliable solutions for applications operating on big data.
Tech-X specializes in developing the latest computational science applications to solve fundamental problems in physics, enabling breakthroughs in research, development, and design. Using cutting-edge computer modeling techniques, advanced visualization, and distributed computing technologies, Tech-X simulations run on hundreds of thousands of processor cores.
“Our compute cluster uses a high-performance storage appliance that is managed by Terascala to serve the on-site development of advanced scientific applications,” explained Anne M. Hammond, director of IT at Tech-X. “For example, these applications may require simulating electromagnetic wave propagation in fusion plasmas. A typical local analysis could involve up to several terabytes of data, which is made possible due to the superior performance delivered by the cluster and Terascala’s TeraOS software.”
Improving Research
Tech-X simulates processes, devices, and physical systems related to electromagnetics, plasma physics, fusion, and accelerator technologies. A standout project created by Tech-X scientists involved the modeling of the electromagnetic waves that initiate fusion reactions.
To heat fusion plasmas to millions of degrees Celsius, scientists inject megawatts of electromagnetic energy from carefully engineered radiofrequency antennas. Tech-X models the complex interactions between the electromagnetic waves and plasma at increasing levels of detail, exploring basic physics processes that occur on or near the antenna surfaces. Simulations are first prototyped on a local cluster, then run at full scale at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility.
Accelerating I/O
Prior to installing the high-performance storage appliance, Tech-X was using a legacy 96 core Linux cluster with gigabit networking and a Network File System (NFS). Large simulation files and limitations of NFS precluded Tech-X from utilizing parallel I/O operations, resulting in slower simulations and lower resolution results.
In contrast, the Terascala managed storage appliance has allowed Tech-X scientists to run fast, detailed simulations. “High resolution simulation results enable our customers to understand physical processes and greatly decrease their production and manufacturing costs,” concluded Hammond.
About Terascala
Terascala—the High Performance Computing (HPC) management company—has pioneered software that lowers total cost of ownership by managing and optimizing data, performance, and reliability. Savings is quickly realized through minimizing downtime, moving data very fast between scratch and inexpensive backup storage, and optimizing workload throughput. The company’s TeraOS software provides system-level high availability to reduce costly degraded performance and downtime. It integrates workload, network, storage, and file system monitoring, analysis, pre-emptive failure alerts, and fast failover. Terascala’s real-time analysis and phone home support keeps these highly complex systems up and running at peak performance. Support costs are minimized with no HPC or parallel file system expertise required.
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