Oslo 08. September 2009
Numascale and the University of Oslo prepare for large scale NumaConnect™ system for the University’s Center for Information Technology Services (USIT)
The objective of the program is to build a shared memory system based on standard high volume servers and Numascales’s interconnect as a prototype for the University’s next large computer system.
The project is supported with NOK 7 500 000 by Innovation Norway under its Research and Development Contract Program The University of Oslo plans to build a new large supercomputer for scientific applications with a strong focus on efficiency and total cost of ownership. Efficiency is particularly important since large compute clusters have high requirements for power and cooling. Numascale develops computer system interconnect technology with new capabilities that significantly improves efficiency and utilization of compute clusters. For a typical workload for a central scientific computing resource the University has estimated a potential of more than 30% improved utilization with Numascale’s technology. The technology will also enable applications that are not suited for standard clusters and eliminate the need for renting capacity on far more expensive systems.
Numascale’s technology will be tested and qualified for large-scale operation in a smaller scale prototype. The University aims at a final installation in the 1 PetaFlops class. The prototype system is planned for 500 to 1000 processor cores.
”I am very excited to get early access to this technology that opens a series of new opportunities to our users”, says ICT Director Lars Oftedal, head of USIT.
”It is a great opportunity for us to be ale to deploy our technology with the University and we are very pleased with the support from Innovation Norway that has enabled this opportunity for us”, says Kare Lochsen, Numascale CEO.
“At Innovation Norway we are very pleased to be able to contribute to this exciting and innovative project that contributes to high performance and energy savings in computing”, says Information Director Kjetil Svorkmo Bergmann in Innovation Norway.
About Numascale AS
Numascale AS was founded in 2008 and develops advanced computer system interconnect technology. Numascale's NumaConnect™ technology enables scalable server computer systems to be built at a fraction of the price of current enterprise systems. NumaConnect allows high volume manufactured server boards to be used as building blocks for systems with features that are only found in the high-end enterprise servers. NumaConnect includes full support for virtualization of processing, memory and IO resources and can be used with standard operating systems like Linux, Windows and Solaris.
About USIT
USIT or Center for Information Technology Services is University of Oslo’s central unit for ICT. USIT delivers the infrastructure and ICT services and ICT solutions required by the University of Oslo supporting the University’s objective in education, research and administration. USIT is a part of the University’s Central Administration. The University of Oslo is Norway’s largest and oldest institution of higher education. It was founded in 1811 and today the University of Oslo has approx. 30,000 students and 4,600 employees. Four Nobel Prize winners indicate the quality of the research at the University.
About Innovation
Norway Innovation Norway promotes nationwide industrial development profitable to both the business economy and Norway’s national economy, and helps release the potential of different districts and regions by contributing towards innovation, internationalization and promotion. The state owned company employs more than 700 people. Innovation Norway has offices in all the Norwegian counties and in more than 30 countries world-wide. The head office is located in Oslo. When larger organizations require innovation, they must consider their options. They can either use in-house resources, or they can «buy» development services externally. To stimulate the latter alternative, Innovation Norway offers the incentive scheme, Research and Development Contracts, which is a platform for organizing such co-operation.
Contacts:
Numascale AS, Kåre Løchsen CEO, , +47 95088731
USIT: Hans A. Eide PhD, , +47 45465804
Innovation Norway: Kjetil Svorkmo Bergmann informasjonsdirektør, , +47 90820918
