By Yelena Overianova
Scientists from the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences’ United Institute of Informatics Problems have developed a ‘SKIF-GRID’ supercomputer, based on 12-nuclei AMD Opteron processors and graphic processor-accelerators. This is now the most productive configuration in the family of Belarusian supercomputer ‘SKIF’ models, within the ‘SKIF-GRID’ cluster. Tests were successfully passed in November.
The maximum speed of the ‘SKIF-GRID’ cluster is eight teraflops (eight trillion operations per second) — without taking into consideration the acceleration possible with the use of graphic processors. The cluster’s coefficient of efficiency is 82.15 percent, while its computational nodes and other modules are placed in a single 19-inch stand (giving a height of about 2m).
The computational resources of this new computer ensure a significant increase in the power of Belarus’ national GRID-segment. For example, Belarusian clusters with graphic processors are ranked first worldwide for points earned in calculations over a single day (over 2 million). This was recorded as part of an international project in the field of bio-informatics: GPUGRID.
