Westgrid - High Performance Computing at the University of Alberta

As part of Research Data Management week (May 4-8 2015), several sessions on High Performance Computing are bundled into the Compute Canada and WestGrid User Training Seminar.  I was lucky enough to attend a session on High Performance Computing that concluded with a tour of the Westgrid High Performance Computing center on campus at the University of Alberta.

Hidden away in the depths of General Services Building (I knew this building housed some critical facilities) is the server center. It holds two of the most powerful systems in Canada, and perhaps the world: Jasper (4160 cores, 8 TB RAM, 356 TB file system) and Hungabee (2048 cores, 16 TB RAM, 53 TB file system).

Westgrid is connected by high-performance networks, so users can connect to the system which best fits their needs regardless of physical location.

Rumors were confirmed, namely that there is a small section of the North Saskatchewan River that does not freeze due to the water exchange (ice cold water in to cool the systems and hot  water out) to keep these behemoths running smooth.

Photo by XuanZhang

The workshop also did a great job at breaking down jargon terms like the ‘cloud’, the ‘grid’, and ‘big data’ into meaningful, technical, understandable concepts.