- Thanks to Hyperion’s capabilities at the Donostia International Physics Center, some of the most complex questions in the universe are being investigated
- Lenovo technology allows operations to run three times faster than on the Atlas supercomputer
Friday, May 10, 2024 – The Donostia International Physics Center, DIPC, has chosen Lenovo technology to power its new Hyperion supercomputer, which aims to answer some of the most complex questions for the humanity.
The center was born with the aim of becoming one of the world’s reference points for scientific research into highly complex issues. Thanks to the investment they made in computing infrastructure, experts from all over the world and even several Nobel Prize winners came to the Basque Country to use these resources and collaborate with other leaders in their respective fields. The objective? Address social challenges and some of the most complex issues from a scientific perspective.
The DIPC profile gained popularity while the complexity of the computational simulations carried out by users increased. The increase in demand made it necessary to increase the capacity of the supercomputer so that waiting times and, as a consequence, progress in research were not prolonged too much.
To maintain the interest of researchers from around the world, the center decided to invest in cutting-edge computing infrastructure, and considered technological options that would support the 24/7 demand of researchers.
In the words of Dr. Txomin Romero Asturiano, director of the DIPC: “Our Atlas supercomputer worked well, but there came a time when we did not have enough cores to meet demand. To maintain our reputation as a focus of innovation in the Basque Country, we wanted to offer our users the greatest high-performance computing power possible,” he assured.
Lenovo’s winning proposal
Lenovo, which has been recognized as one of the world leaders in energy efficiency in the area of supercomputing, has proposed ThinkSystem technology as the basis of the new Hyperion supercomputer, including 60 ThinkSystem SR630 V2 Nodes with 256 Gb of memory each, Intel Xeon Gold 6342 24C processors with a total of 2,880 cores and 16 Lenovo ThinkSystem SR650 V2 storage nodes, among other technologies.
With the help of its partner Omega Peripherals, and thanks to Lenovo’s leadership position in the market, the team has offered a solution with high computing capacity, superior to that offered in the other proposals, within the limited space available and at a competitive price.
On the other hand, the DIPC has required a unique design for cooling, since it is a real challenge to achieve the optimal temperature for the operation of hypercomputer facilities. These conditions represented a second circumstance to overcome, which was the limitation of space, since it prevented them from including more air conditioners or chillers.
In the words of Dr. Txomin Romero Asturiano, “Lenovo offered more computing nodes than any other vendor. “They also provided a very energy efficient solution that also had a low carbon footprint in the small space we had.”
For his part, José Luis Velasco, head of the Public Sector, comments: “As world leaders in supercomputing, at Lenovo we are committed to technologies that allow us to advance scientifically thanks to intelligent technologies that use fewer and fewer resources. Building a sustainable future is key for us,” he says.
Exceeding expectations
The Hyperion supercomputer, powered by Lenovo technology, is already three times more powerful than Atlas, the immediately preceding computer, and has 15% more cores than the competition. Thanks to Lenovo’s large number of compute and storage nodes, operations run an average of three times faster. In addition, simulations can be more ambitious and allow more jobs to be executed in parallel, significantly reducing waiting times and meeting the demand for 24/7 hypercomputing resources.
Dr. Txomin Romero Asturiano, director of the DIPC, assures: “Hyperion is working even better than we expected. “With Lenovo’s help, we give the world’s brightest minds the computing resources they need to solve the toughest problems out there.”
And since Hyperion was launched at the end of 2023, it has been providing service not only to the DIPC, but to the entire Basque scientific community. Thanks to him, attempts are being made to answer some of the world’s most burning questions regarding topics such as the creation and evolution of the universe, the formation of stars or genetic therapy. But this is not all, since the more than 500 researchers who are using the DIPC resources are also carrying out simulations sent by mathematicians, biologists, computer scientists, etc., so that the dimension of knowledge is applied to an infinite number of topics.
