NEC supplies LX supercomputer to RWTH Aachen University in Germany

NEC Corporation (NEC; TSE

RWTH is one of Europe's leading universities, with a specific approach to connecting engineering and natural sciences. The university optimises and accelerates the development process for new products in an integrated approach that is supported by mathematical modelling and simulation, such as the application of sciences, including fluid dynamics and material science.

The efficient use of high performance computing capabilities enables the development of simulation techniques for the flow of materials throughout the entirety of industry process chains.

The system provided by NEC is built from more than 750 nodes, consisting of large memory SMP nodes and dual socket MPI compute nodes, with a total of over 19,000 computational cores capable of delivering a performance of more than 600 TeraFlop/s, which makes RWTH one of the top 10 German universities in terms of HPC resources.

The nodes are connected through a high speed Intel Omni-Path network with a topology that allows continuous expansion of the system, matching continuous growth of HPC demands from RWTH researchers.

The compute cluster is completed by a 4 PetaByte NEC LXFS-z parallel file-system capable of 60 GigaByte/s bandwidth. Moreover, a scalable ZFS-based Lustre solution provides advanced data integrity features paired with a high density and high reliability design.

In addition, the system not only offers leading edge performance, but it is environmentally friendly at the same time. The servers are entirely cooled with facility water, which reduces the air cooling requirements for the computer room by 90 percent. The cooling system allows water inlet temperatures up to 30°C and the cluster can be cooled for free most of the year through a heat exchanger that does not require external cooling power.

"We selected the NEC LX technology because of its superior performance, as well as low total cost of ownership due to innovative cooling technology," said Professor Matthias Muller, head of the IT Center at RWTH Aachen University. "Going forward, we are excited to work with NEC as a strong corporate partner in expanding our IT research.