University of La Laguna, Tenerife, chooses Bull NovaScale servers to host HPC (high-performance computing) applications
La Laguna, (Tenerife)/Madrid,
November
23, 2005 -
Bull today announces that it has signed a contract with the University of La Laguna (ULL) in Tenerife to supply 13 NovaScale servers, based on Intel® Itanium® 2 processors, to the University's newly-inaugurated Research Computing Service (SAII).
High-Performance Computing (HPC) supporting research activities
Bull is to supply one NovaScale 6320 (equipped with 32 Intel® Itanium® 2 processors), four NovaScale 4040s (each featuring four Intel® Itanium® 2 processors) and 8 NovaScale 4020 servers (each featuring dual Intel® Itanium 2 processors). The servers provide a total of 64 processors and will be connected by a Quadrics high-speed network.
The servers will provide all the computing power required by the entire scientific community, enhancing the University's research potential. To promote the growing importance of HPC in research, there will be a regular program of communication with the university's academic community over the coming months. In addition, training courses will be offered to researchers to help them understand how best to use the new computing systems available to them.
The new SAII will actively assist the University's research community in many important areas, including technical support, consulting, training and managing computing resources. The service will also provide appropriate software tools to support the research community in their work across a number of specialist areas such as thermal analysis, installation of radioactive sources, atomic absorption spectrometry in graphite flames and ovens, flow cytrometry and high-resolution mass spectrometry.
According to Francisco de Sande, head of the Research Center and a Professor in ULL's Department of Statistics, Operational Research and Computation: "The HPC cluster, based around Bull's NovaScale technology, forms the heart of the new Research Computing Service (SAII) which the University has just established. We are confident that once it is up and running, the Service will play an important part in improving the quality of the research carried out at the University".
"The University of La Laguna's decision confirms Bull's ability to implement its HPC strategy, capitalizing on its NovaScale server offerings," explains José Camacho, Director in charge of Bull's Products business in Spain. "We are confident that this marks the start of a fruitful collaboration between Bull and the University."
"Bull NovaScale servers, based on Intel Itanium® 2 processors, respond perfectly to the computing demands of the university sector. Their very high levels of performance and flexibility provide an ideal platform for even the most demanding HPC applications," confirms Jorge Lang, Sales Director for Intel Spain.
The Bull NovaScale family of servers
The NovaScale family is at the heart of Bull's strategy to provide SMP (Symmetric Multi Processing) servers that are both open and modular, and support several different operating systems (Microsoft® Windows®, Linux® and GCOS). Specifically designed for mission-critical environments, the Bull NovaScale range of SMP servers extends from dual-processor configurations right up to servers supporting 32 Intel Itanium® 2 processors, and provides advanced physical partitioning functionality.
The NovaScale 6320 server at the heart of the ULL's configuration is particularly well suited to application consolidation, as well as managing large-scale databases and security or multimedia-related applications. Its significant computing power and speed means it can also meet the needs of scientific and technical applications which operated best within cluster or grid-type architectures.
In the scientific and technical sector, Bull provides infrastructure solutions incorporating compilers, scientific libraries, cluster solutions and storage solutions. Since they were launched, Bull NovaScale servers have proved highly successful both in the business computing market and in the market for HPC applications.
The architecture of the Bull NovaScale 6000 series consists of standard blocks (Intel® Itanium® 2 processors) connected via the FAME Scalability Switch (FSS), a component designed and developed by Bull to guarantee high-speed interconnections.
About the University of La Laguna
The University of La Laguna, based on the island of Tenerife, in the Canaries, has some 25,000 students, 1,700 academic staff and 800 administrative and support staff. Two hundred years after it was founded, the University remains an important feature of the community in the Canaries, which reaches out to the entire world from its vantage point in the Atlantic Ocean. The University offers 56 different options, for first and second stage higher education, including 28 degree courses and 16 first-stage diplomas, architectural training, six different technical qualifications and five engineering qualifications. In addition, 20 Masters and 34 PhD programs are also offered across all sectors of academic endeavor.
For more information about the SAII, visit: http://www.saii.ull.es
About Bull, Architect of an Open World
Bull is an Information Technology company, dedicated to helping Corporations and Public Sector organizations optimize the architecture, operations and the financial return of their Information Systems and their mission-critical related businesses.
Bull focuses on open and secure systems, and as such is the only European-based company offering expertise in all the key elements of the IT value chain.
For more information visit: http://www.bull.com
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