Welcome to the San Diego Supercomputer Center

1
Welcome to the San Diego Supercomputer Center

• This presentation was adapted from a previous
  version created by Fran Berman, SDSC Director

2
About SDSC

• Founded in 1985, was affiliated with General
  Atomics
• Funded mainly by the United States National
  Science Foundation
• SDSC has more than 400 scientists, software
  developers and support personnel with expertise
  in
• high-performance computing,
• data and knowledge systems,
• networking,
• visualization,
• computational science,
• grid and cluster computing,
• and security

3
SDSC Highlights

• Supercomputers
• 3 major academic research supercomputers
• One of the 25 fastest on Earth!
• Data
• 600 times the data in the United States National
  Library of Congress, or the amount of music in
  over 300,000 iPods!
• Many Different Kinds of People
• Computer Scientists, Biologists, Astronomers,
  Gamers, Oceanographers, Hacker trackers, etc.

4
The Machine Room
SDSC Machine Room 11,000 ft2
5
SDSC Staff Help Researchers Do Computational
Science

• What would happen if 1000 gallons of oil spilled
  into San Diego Bay? (What if Models)
• Can we design efficient hydrogen fuel cells?
  (Engineering Models)
• What will happen if the Earths climate gets
  warmer? (Prediction Models)

6
We Solve Problems Faster

• Two ways of making computers solve problems
  faster
• Make them smarter
• Make them work together

7
The Network IS The Computer

• We can divide the program into parts and execute
  a different part of the program on each computer
• To save time, we can run the different parts of
  the program at the same time
• We call these kinds of programs parallel programs

8

• How to simulate an earthquake
• 1. Divide up Southern California into blocks
• 2. For each block, collect data on ground
  surface composition, geological structures, fault
  information, etc.

9

• How to simulate an earthquake
• 3. Map the blocks on to processors

SDSCs DataStar one of the 25 fastest
computers in the world
10

• How to simulate an earthquake
• 4. The simulation outputs data on seismic wave
  velocity, earthquake magnitude,and other
  characteristics

• Where does SDSC keep the data?
• In HPSS, a tape storage library that can hold 6
  PetaBytes (6000 Terabytes) -- 300 times the
  printed materials in the United States National
  Library of Congress

• How much data was output?
• 47 TeraBytes which is
• More than two times the printed materials in the
  United States National Library of Congress! or
• The amount of music in over 2000 iPods!

Play movie
11
1906 San Francisco Earthquake Simulation
Play movie
12
More Volume Visualization

• Orion Nebula Simulation for Hayden Planetarium at
  the American Museum of Natural History

Play movie
13
Educational Gaming
Explore the Earth
Build a Star
http//visservices.sdsc.edu/
14
Thanks for visiting SDSC!
http//www.sdsc.edu/
15
On To The Machine Room