Published on 21 Apr 2009
"The BladeCenter solution gives Turboinštitut an extremely high performance computing infrastructure." - Aleš Petan, Chief Information Officer, Turboinštitut
Customer:
Turboinštitut d.d.
Industry:
Construction / Architecture / Engineering, Energy & Utilities
Deployment country:
Slovenia
Solution:
Deep Computing, Deep Computing: Visualization, Energy Efficiency
Overview
Turboinštitut d.d. is a world-renowned hydro-energy research organization specializing in model development, design, production and testing.
Business need:
Turboinštitut wanted to increase the speed and detail of its complex computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations, to support its research into hydro-electric turbine design. The challenge was to create a solution that would offer the required performance while remaining energy- and cost-efficient.
Solution:
Turboinštitut implemented a 2,048-core supercomputer based on 256 IBM BladeCenter® servers running Linux®. An IBM System Storage™ DS4700 provides 10 TB of data storage and workload scheduling for the BladeCenter cluster is handled on two IBM System x3850 servers.
Benefits:
Estimated 50-times performance increase over previous platform
IBM Global Financing lease reduced up-front capital investment
IBM BladeCenter offers high performance per watt of power consumed
Case Study
Turboinštitut d.d. is a world-renowned hydro-energy research organization specializing in model development, design, production and testing. Headquartered in Ljubljana, Slovenia, the institute utilizes its experience, systematic research and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools to advance the development of hydropower as a green alternative to energy derived from fossil fuels.
Carrying out complex water turbine design simulations requires enormous compute capacity. As designs are refined, the processing workload grows, and existing systems at Turboinštitut were no longer able to deliver results in acceptable timeframes. The gradually increasing backlog of CFD tasks had started to impact the ability to serve customers efficiently, and Turboinštitut was unable to take on new projects.
Aleš Petan, Chief Information Officer, comments, “To meet the processing requirements, it was clear that a new solution was needed. The aim was to accelerate the research and development program, designed to encourage energy companies worldwide to introduce hydro-power as the eco-friendly energy source.”
Green technology for green energy
Turboinštitut worked with IBM and SIMT d.o.o. to implement a supercomputing system, named LSC Adria, based on IBM BladeCenter® technology. The 2,048-core system uses 256 clustered IBM BladeCenter servers running the Linux® operating system. InfiniBand network technology provides high-speed inter-cluster communication. The system stores computational data on an IBM System Storage™ DS4700 with 10 TB capacity and workload scheduling is performed by two clustered IBM System x3850 servers.
By integrating servers, storage and networking, IBM BladeCenter helps reduce complexity and inefficiency in the data center. Each chassis—which holds up to 14 blade servers—contains shared redundant power, shared hot-swap cooling, integrated Ethernet, storage, switching and management tools. With shared low-power components, IBM BladeCenter enables Turboinštitut to pack a huge amount of compute power into a relatively small environmental footprint.
“The BladeCenter solution gives Turboinštitut an extremely high performance computing infrastructure. With a compact system design, highly efficient processors and sophisticated management tools, we have a green solution for research into green hydro-power solutions, creating a very pleasing symmetry,” says Aleš Petan.
The right solution at the right price
To make the proposed supercomputer financially feasible, Turboinštitut asked IBM Global Financing to create a suitable lease. The IBM Global Financing team provided the organization with a 36-month Fair Market Value lease, with an additional three months of usage at the end of the lease. The low monthly payments meet the organization's financial needs, while the free usage period provides Turboinštitut with time to either return the equipment to IBM and smoothly transition to a larger platform, extend the lease further, or purchase the equipment.
With IBM Global Financing, Turboinštitut can treat the leasing solution as a monthly cost, rather than a long-term investment, enabling the organization to implement a larger and more powerful system than it previously thought possible.
Dramatic speed increase
With the IBM BladeCenter solution, Turboinštitut can now carry out complex water turbine design simulations on highly energy-efficient servers in fractions of the previous timescales. Where CFD projects formerly took weeks to complete, the time-to-result has typically been reduced to a matter of hours.
Performing calculations 50 times faster than previous systems, the new solution accelerates the research and development program, with IBM BladeCenter helping Turboinštitut promote hydropower as the eco-friendly alternative to traditional energy sources.
Aleš Petan concludes, “The BladeCenter solution offers excellent performance per watt of power consumed, and we are able to complete the same workload within shorter timescales. Like hydro power, IBM BladeCenter shows that eco-friendly can also mean great business results.”
Components
IBM products and services that were used in this case study.
Hardware:
BladeCenter, BladeCenter H Chassis, BladeCenter HS21, System x, System x: System x3850
Legal Information
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2008 IBM Systems and Technology Group Route 100 Somers, NY 10589 U.S.A. Produced in the United States of America April 2009 All Rights Reserved IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, BladeCenter and System Storage are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published. Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at “Copyright and trademark information” at ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the United States, other countries, or both. Other product, company or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. IBM and SIMT d.o.o. are separate companies and each is responsible for its own products. Neither IBM nor SIMT d.o.o. makes any warranties, express or implied, concerning the other’s products. References in this publication to IBM products, programs or services do not imply that IBM intends to make these available in all countries in which IBM operates. Any reference to an IBM product, program or service is not intended to imply that only IBM’s product, program or service may be used. Any functionally equivalent product, program or service may be used instead. Offerings are subject to change, extension or withdrawal without notice. All client examples cited represent how some clients have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Performance data for IBM and non-IBM products and services contained in this document was derived under specific operating and environmental conditions. The actual results obtained by any party implementing such products or services will depend on a large number of factors specific to such party’s operating environment and may vary significantly. IBM makes no representation that these results can be expected or obtained in any implementation of any such products or services. THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED “AS-IS” WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED.
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