HPC at Lobachevsky State University in Nizhny Novgorod

General Information

Today, the supercomputer technologies are considered to be one of the most important directions of scientific and technological development of many leading countries in the world, including Russia. The potential of supercomputer branch of science and technology allows solving many fundamental and applied problems, which modeling and analysis require performing the large-scale computations in. Extensive and efficient application of supercomputer technologies can serve as a driving force for the innovative development of modern Russia favoring not only the deep modernization of industry but also providing the leadership in the global economic competition.

Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies (REC «SCT-Privolzh’e») is included into National System of Research and Educational Centers (RECs) for Supercomputer Technologies established in Russia in 2011-2012 within the framework of the project “Creation of the System for Training the Highly Qualified Personnel in the Field of Supercomputers and Sophisticated Software” by Commission for the Modernization and Technological Development of Russian Economy at President of Russian Federation.

Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies is one of main educational departments of University of Nizhny Novgorod oriented onto the training of the highly qualified experts and carrying out research in the field of supercomputer technologies and high performance computing.

Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies possesses all necessary equipment for carrying out research: from a supercomputer computational cluster with the performance of more than 570 trillion operations per second (570 TFlops) to the personal mini-clusters and desktop supercomputer setups from almost all leading IT companies (Intel, AMD, IBM, NVidia, SuperMicro, Т-Platforms, Niagara).

One of main directions of activity of the REC is training and retraining of experts in the field of supercomputer technologies and high performance computing. REC is involved into teaching the undergraduate, Master, and PhD students at University of Nizhny Novgorod; the faculty improvement program for the higher schoolteachers all over Russia is implemented, scientific and educational schools for young scientists and experts are organized. Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies is performing an innovative project «Internet University of Supercomputer Technologies». Total more than 300 persons participate in various training, retraining, and personnel improvement programs annually, over 10 textbooks on parallel programming have been prepared and published.

Within the frames of Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies, the extensive research and applied developments are being carried out in a wide spectrum of directions: from the system programming to the development of complex problem-oriented software for the parallel computations within the frameworks of various international, federal, industrial, and corporative research and development programs. The research is carried out in close collaboration with leading Russian scientific centers and leading IT companies. The research results were recognized in Russia and worldwide. Various forms of collaboration with foreign research teams from USA, Germany, Denmark, Italy, and Switzerland are being developed.

The research conferences and seminars are organized and held regularly with direct participation of Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies. The results of investigations are presented at well-known scientific and technical forums and exhibitions – CeBIT (Germany), International SuperComputing (Germany), SuperComputing (USA), etc.

The collaboration with leading IT companies (Intel, Microsoft, IBM, NVidia, Supermicro, Т-Platforms, Niagara, etc.) Is an important direction of activity of REC “SCT-Privolzh’e”.

The level of research at Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies is justified by a large number of research projects carried out within the frames of Federal programs «Research and Teaching Faculty of Innovative Russia», «Research and Developments in the Priority Directions of Development of Scientific and Technological Complex of Russia», «Development of Education», etc. Volga Research and Education Center for Supercomputing Technologies includes the centers of competence of leading IT companies: Intel, Microsoft, IBM, NVidia.

The subject of supercomputer computations is one of priority scientific platforms of the strategy of development of University of Nizhny Novgorod.

“Lobachevsky” Supercomputer

“Lobachevsky” supercomputer has been installed in University of Nizhny Novgorod in December, 2013. The supercomputer is a computational complex with NVIDIA Kepler graphical processors and Intel Xeon Phi co-processors with the peak performance of 573 Tflops. In the 20th edition of Russian Top50 list from April 1, 2014 «Lobachevsky» occupies the 4th position. Nowadays the supercomputer includes 2 segments, the description of which is presented below.

Also, the supercomputer includes the data storage system with total volume 120 TB. The computational network of the cluster is based on InfiniBand technology.

Research

Extensive research and applied developments in a wide spectrum of directions from the system programming to the development of the complex problem oriented software for the parallel computing are being carried out at Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod. Among these works, there are:

• Creating the models and methods for organization of efficient parallel computing on the high performance systems with the heterogeneous architecture.
• Development of the software tools for the system control of the multiprocessor computer systems, integrated on a unified conceptual basis with the application software and allowing the distributed computations on the parallel computer networks.
• Creating the models, methods, and tools of parallel computing for the relevant fields of application, analysis and investigation of which requires the equipment of the supercomputer performance.
• Development of the application software for the mathematical modeling and carrying out the computational experiments on the multicore computer systems for solving the scientific and technological problems, the methods of analysis of which are computational-costly essentially.

The main directions of the research and applied projects carried out on the base of Center of Supercomputer Technologies directly are:

• High performance computing in the global optimization problems.
• High performance computing in the biomedical applications.
• Technologies and software of the high performance computing.
• High performance computer graphics and scientific visualization.

Collaborations with Research Institutions

University of Nizhny Novgorod is involved into the Supercomputer Consortium of Russian Universities. Supercomputer Consortium has been established with the purpose of the coordination of effort of Russian universities in the efficient utilization of the existing potential of supercomputer technologies in Russian educational, science, and industry.

The founders of Consortium were:

• Lomonosov Moscow State University
• Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod
• Tomsk State University
• South Ural State University

President of Consortium is V.A. Sadovnichii, Rector of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vice President of Russian Academy of Sciences.

The activities of Consortium are oriented onto the solving of the following main problems:

• Coordination and organization of the cooperation of Russian higher schools in the utilization and development of modern supercomputer technologies in education, science, and industry.
• Coordination of the cooperation of the commercial companies and industrial enterprises with the higher schools of Russia for development and implementation of the supercomputer technologies in the high technology sectors of economy.
• Development of the educational programs for training the highly qualified experts, personnel improvement, and retraining in the field of supercomputer technologies and high performance computing.
• Promotion of development of the network of highly efficient supercomputer centers in Russia, oriented onto the implementation of the high performance computer technologies in all spheres of national economy.
• Formation of a system for exchange of advanced experience, dissemination of the latest achievements in the field of high performance computing.
• Development of the scientific and educational program and the research and technological ones in the field of supercomputer technologies and high performance data processing.
• Promotion of the intensification of basic and applied research requiring performing the large scale time consuming computations in Russian universities in collaboration with the RAS institutes.
• Development and support of a system of Russian scientific conferences and scientific schools for young scientists on the supercomputer technologies and the applications of these ones.
• Development of the international educational and scientific collaboration of Russian universities in the field of supercomputer technologies and high performance computing.

At the beginning of 2013, Consortium included 42 Russian universities and 16 associated members.

The research and educational centers for supercomputers technologies (REC SCT) have been established in 2011-2012 within the framework of fulfillment of Russian Project of Supercomputer Education and constituted the national system of the organizational support of the efficient use of the potential of the supercomputer technologies in education, science, and industry. The research and educational centers have been established in each federal district of Russia on the base of leading universities involved into Supercomputer Consortium of Russian Universities, which possess a considerable experience in carrying out research and educational activities in the field of SCT.

The main goals of the system of REC SCT are:

• Training, retraining, and improvement of personnel in the priority and promising directions of supercomputer technologies and special software.
• Improvement of the efficiency of research by combining the effort and resources.
• Performing the innovation activity in the scientific and educational spheres in collaboration with the research institutes, industry, and business.

The REC system consists of:

• REC «SCT-Center» based on Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow
• REC «SCT-Privolzh’e» based National Research Lobachevsky University of Nizhny Novgorod, Nizhny Novgorod
• REC «SCT-North-East» based on National Research Saint-Petersburg State University of Information Technologies, Mechanics, and Optics, Saint-Petersburg
• REC «SCT-Ural» based on National Research South Ural State University, Tchelyabinsk
• REC «SCT-Siberia» based on National Research Tomsk State University, Tomsk
• REC «SCT-South» based on South Federal University, Rostov-on-Don
• REC «SCT-Far East» based on Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok
• REC «SCT-MIPT» based on Moscow Institute for Physics and Technology (state university), Moscow

Collaborations with IT Companies

The activity of University of Nizhny Novgorod is featured by a very close cooperation with leading Russian and foreign IT companies (Intel, Microsoft, IBM, HARMAN Connected Services, etc.). The joint international research projects are carried out, the fellowships of the institute faculty members at leading scientific centers are organized. The visits of Russian and foreign scientists in UNN with lectures on the relevant scientific problems become traditional.

Mutual interest of the parties is a guarantee of success of the collaboration between the university and the IT companies. The possibility to use the first-class equipment, getting a more complete understanding on the development of novel computer technologies from leading IT companies allows managing the training of experts at the institute at a qualitatively new level according to the highest requirements of the international community. The involvement of the talented young researchers into the sphere of their activity, carrying out joint research and applied projects is valuable for the IT companies.

Intel

The cooperation with Intel company is the most valuable. Among main directions of cooperation, one can note the donation of modern computer equipment (a computer cluster, 6 computer classes) to UNN, carrying out joint research projects, the support of development of new educational materials, supply of the scientific and technical literature.

The establishment of a research and educational laboratory «Information Technologies» (ITLab) and Laboratory of Wireless Technologies with a support from Intel is an innovative form of organization of cooperation. Winter and summer schools and practicum for the undergraduate and PhD students and young scientists have been conducted in 2004 – 2012 with support of Intel Co. The aim of conducting these schools was the intensive studying and practical training in the basic aspects of organization of high-performance computations in various fields of application of the multiprocessor computer systems.

Microsoft

The collaboration with Microsoft Co. Is developing dynamically. Among the joint activities, there are the transfer of the licensed software, organization of various from of retraining for the teachers, delivering the lectures by the company experts, conducting the seminars and conferences. The launch of Microsoft Innovation Center at University of Nizhny Novgorod was an outstanding event among the joint activities. Innovation Center provides new opportunities for using the modern information technologies in the educational, industrial, and business institutions of various levels.

The operation of Innovation Center is related to the education, research, and developments, conducting scientific and technical seminars and conferences as well as to providing the services in the field of high performance computing to the institutions of Privolzhskii Federal District. It is worth noting especially that in 2005 Bill Gates, President of «Microsoft» Corporation, has selected 10 universities all over the world for the improvement of the activities in the field of parallel programming and high performance computing. UNN was the only Russian university, which was included in these 10 universities.

Т-Platforms

UNN is collaborating with Т-Platforms Co., the leading Russian developer and producer of the complex solutions for high performance computing. Т-Platforms Co. has supplied a high performance computer cluster (64 two-core servers Intel Xeon 3.2 GHz, peak performance is 3 Tflops) to UNN. This cluster was installed at UNN within the fulfillment of an innovative educational program within the framework of National Project «Education». Also, Т-Platform Co. has supplied T-Forge Mini hardware&software complex based on eight two-core processors AMD Opteron to UNN. These supercomputers are used for the investigations in the field of parallel and grand-computing, quantum chemistry computations as well as for teaching the students of university in mathematical modeling with the application of parallel computer technologies.

NVIDIA

One of the meaningful tendencies of development of modern computer technologies is an essential increase of performance of the computer platforms based on graphic processors and development of the promising high-speed computer systems using these ones. The graphic processors overcome actively the frames of the original field of application of these ones – videocomuting – and begin to be applied widely for the organization of the massive computations. Thus, among the first 5 most powerful supercomputer systems of the world in the Top500 list, three systems are built with the use of graphic processors. The active use of graphic processors for creating the compact – personal – high-speed computer systems, which favor the mass application of modern computer technologies for solving many relevant problems in science, education, and business because of their relatively low cost and high energetic efficiency becomes a phenomenon of the same importance. Addressing the issues of training the personnel, carrying out the research on creation the new methods of computations, the development of the system and application software are the necessary and essential conditions for the efficient use of the potential of the high performance systems based on the graphic processors.

The main goal of the research center of technologies of NVIDIA Co. (CUDA Research Center) is the promotion of the massive application of the promising high performance computer systems based on the graphic processors for solving the relevant scientific and technological problems for the institutions, enterprises, and companies in education, science, industry, and business in Privolzhkii Federal District and all over Russia.

The main goals of the Center are:

• Realization of the complex steps on the expansion of the practical use of the promising high performance computer systems based on the graphic processors for solving the relevant scientific technological problems for the institutions, enterprises, and companies in education, science, industry, and business in Privolzhkii Federal District and all over Russia.
• Development of the educational programs and the improvement of the quality of training the IT experts, retraining and personnel improvement in the field of modern information technologies utilizing the graphic processors.
• Carrying out research on creating new methods and technologies of using the graphic processors for the problems of video computing, life sciences, and automated design.
• Development of system and application software for promising high performance computer systems based on graphic processors.

In general, the activity of REC will allow in the shortest time (3-5 years) essentially increasing the quality of training of the IT experts in University of Nizhny Novgorod and in the higher schools of Privolzhsky Federal District by providing the development and implementation of Russian and foreign educational programs in the field of IT-education that would expand the opportunities for the practical use of promising high performance computer systems based on the graphic processors for solving the relevant scientific and technological problems for the institutions, enterprises, and companies in education, science, industry, and business of Privolzhsky Federal District and all over Russia.