Center for Computational Sciences and Simulation (CCSS)

New high performance computer

Plans were first made in 2012 for the expansion of HPC capacities, which had become necessary due to the heavy workload of the Cray XT6m supercomputer and the growing demand as a result of new appointments and research projects. After a lengthy search for a suitable location, a research facility funding application was submitted under Professors Kempf and Schröder in February 2014 for investment in the new HPC2@UDE supercomputer. In March 2015, the UDE received approval from the DFG and the State. The new high-performance HPC2@UDE is being installed early in 2016. It will have 13,000 cores, just below 40 TB of main memory and theoretical performance of 466 teraflops. This is likely to mean that the UDE will once again be home to one of the world’s 500 most powerful computers and the implementing company’s current flagship system. Parallel to making the application, the ZIM and the Building Management Department were jointly searching for suitable premises, since ongoing space problems and a forthcoming modernization schedule made an external location the only viable solution. The search culminated in suitable premises being provided by the DU-IT (a subsidiary of the public utilities and transport provider Duisburger Versorgungs- und Verkehrsgesellschaft) on the site of the logport I logistics area in Duisburg-Rheinhausen. Operation of the new HPC2@UDE, like the Cray-XT6m, will be the responsibility of the ZIM.