McGill University today announced an $8.3-million CDN contract with IBM in Canada to acquire a supercomputer cluster, which, after being installed, will become the most powerful supercomputer in Quebec and the second-most energy-efficient data centre in Canada.
The new supercomputer is based on IBM's iDataPlex solution which can integrate two Intel Xeon quad-core or six-core processors as well as a pair of
graphics processing units inside a single 2U computing node.
Each of the nodes can also be configured to feature up to 192GB of system memory and 10.0TB of storage space.
According to
IBM, its iDataPlex solutions were optimized in order to double the number of servers that can be run in a single rack, while also saving up to 40% more energy than other similar solutions.
These savings were achieved by using the company's Rear Door Heat eXchanger technology as well as some other tweaks.
″With these impressive, multidisciplinary computing capacities, the new theories tested by the McGill CLUMEQ consortium will have a major impact on many areas of scientific expertise, from research into the Big Bang to advances in nano-scale materials, as well as industries in key fields such as neuroscience, biopharma, aerospace, and finance," said McGill's Principal and Vice-Chancellor Heather Munroe-Blum.
"We appreciate the strong support we have received from the federal and provincial governments, and from our IBM partner, which helps us to foster innovation and discovery within our university communities and to conduct transformational research for the continued advancement of society," continued Ms. Munroe-Blum.
Once installed, the new McGill University
cluster will become the fastest supercomputer in Quebec.
Right now, this title is held by the Colosse Sun Blade x6048 system that is installed at the CLUMEQ - Université Laval in Quebec City. This includes 7,616 Intel Xeon X5560 2.8GHz CPUs and its peak performance is rated at 85299 Gflops.
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