On February 24, an expert panel from the High Technology Research and Development Center of the Ministry of Science & Technology conducted the onsite acceptance of “Dawning Thousands Terabyte Data Processing High Performance Computer System”, a subject under 863 Project jointly undertaken by ICT and Dawning Information Industry (Beijing) Co., Ltd.
In November 2011, Dawning 6000 was deployed at NSCC-Shenzhen. The system is composed of 258 cabinets containing 5600 Dawning CB60 blade servers (using dual channel Xeon X5650 processors), 2560 Nvidia Fermi C2050 acceleration cards, and 128 Dawning A840 servers, with a memory of up to 226 TB. The system is equipped with multi sets of interconnected networks, including a set of InfiniBand QDR network with a one way rate of 40Gbps and 2 sets of Gigabit Ethernet.
Dawning 6000 task force has made important breakthrough in CPU-GPU heterogeneous architecture based thousands terabyte key technology and cloud computing management software of high performance computer. The task force also conducted in-depth research of HPP architecture based Chaolong system, developed HPP architecture and controller, node operating system, integrated communication chipset and other key components. They also explored X86 and Loongson CPU hybrid heterogeneous technology. The combination of Loongson CPU with X86 software stack facilitated the compatibility of home made CPUs with mainstream commercial applications, and also laid a good technical foundation for the breakthrough in tens of thousands terabyte computing.
Ever since Dawning 6000 went into operation in NSCC-Shenzhen, it has been providing nearly 200 user groups and research entities with application services involving weather forecast, ocean data simulation, research and development of new materials and pharmaceuticals, gene research, universe evolution, and so on. Pengyun System, an independently developed system operating on Dawning 6000 has been providing institutions, enterprises and individuals with high performance, reliable and secure mass cloud storage and serving as an easy-to-use and common cloud computing service platform.
Dawning 6000 owns independent IPR in basic architecture, blade, storage system, management system, and so on. A series of key technologies of Dawning 6000 have been widely applied to high performance computers and storage systems by Shuguang Company. With greatly improved technical standard and competitive edge, Shuguang has been taking the lead in market share among Top 100 high performance computers in China.
The expert panel unanimously agreed that the subject achieved the pre-set objectives and indices, and concluded that it passed acceptance. In the meantime, they called for wider application of high performance computing and cloud computing so as to give a full play to NSCC’s role in promoting scientific and technological innovation.
