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Which university in China has the strongest supercomputing?
Shanghai Jiao Tong University's newly opened Center for Scientific Computing won the first place.
How strong is it? The peak of double precision hash rate exceeds 6PFlops (6 peta-petty times per second).
Even if it is put into the world's top universities, it can also rank 5th, second only to MIT, and push Cambridge and Harvard.
High-performance computing has become the third largest paradigm of human scientific research after theoretical science and experimental science.
In recent years, major universities have also built their own computing centers to meet the needs of teachers and students to engage in research, and Shanghai Jiaotong University is one of the forefront.
On their "hand over to me" computing platform, cloud computing, artificial intelligence computing, scientific computing, and big data storage platforms have been available before.
From the real-time operation, it can be seen that colleges, research institutes and university hospitals are actively queuing up to get on the machine, and they are operating at high load all year round.
From the perspective of discipline, materials, machinery, physics, biology, and medicine all need computing power, and resources are very tight.
It is to solve this problem that Shanghai Jiaotong University has now added a new scientific computing center.
The New Scientific Computing Center is located in the Lee Jeong-do Research Institute, the focus of the institute is cosmology, particle physics, how will the research in these fields use supercomputing?
From astronomy to quantum
Shanghai Jiaotong University previously had a high-performance computing cluster π2.0, with a double-precision peak of 2.1PFlops. Teachers and students of various faculties and departments have carried out multi-field research work on this high-performance computing platform.
Taking Professor Zhang Jun of the School of Physics as an example, one of his research directions is that gravitational waves are inseparable from supercomputing.
This month he even ranked 4th in utilization on the computing platform.
According to Einstein's general theory of relativity, gravitational waves are "ripples in space-time," perturbations of space-time by massive objects as they move.
This perturbation decays with distance, and gravitational waves have long been difficult to observe directly.
Only the merger of black holes into large events in the universe can produce gravitational waves that can be detected with existing human technology.
But there are a lot of noise signals in the vast universe, and trying to identify gravitational waves from them is another big problem.
At this time, the simulated black hole merger process that can only be achieved by strong computing power has become an important research method.
Using supercomputing to solve the equations of general relativity, numerical simulations of gravitational waves can be obtained, helping researchers identify parts of gravitational waves from the noisy signals detected.
In addition to macroscopic astrophysics, microscopic particle physics also requires a lot of computing power.
A working group at the School of Physics and Astronomy at Shanghai Jiaotong University is developing a new method for analyzing the optical properties of seawater using photographic systems.
With the help of supercomputing, they simulated the path of photons in water and how photons were scattered and absorbed by water molecules.
One of the simulations requires 5 million photons, while it takes nearly 4,000 simulations to traverse the entire parameter space.
In addition to physics research, researchers at Shanghai Jiaotong University also modified AlphaFold's operating process based on the supercomputing platform.
The developed ParaFold optimizes parallel operations to achieve 14 times the efficiency of the original process.
Now with the new Scientific Computing Center, adding 6PFlops to the existing 2.1PFlops is believed to help Shanghai Jiaotong masters and students make more scientific breakthroughs.
It is also worth noting that the new scientific computing center is built inside the newly opened laboratory building of the Lee Zheng Dao Research Institute, covering an area of only 300 square meters.
△ It's in this building
Usually the supercomputing center gives the impression of a separate building, and the size of 6PFlops can be half the size of a football field.
This time, the scientific computing center can be built in an experimental building, using only 14 cabinets, and obtaining the computing power of 70 cabinets in the general general data center.
The computing density reaches 5 times that of the general data center, and the computer room area is less than 1/10 of the general data center.
In Shanghai, where the land is scarce, the construction cost has been greatly saved, how to do it?
Not only does it occupy a small area, but even winter heating is packaged
To increase the computing density of the supercomputing center, the hardware configuration used should be powerful enough.
Shanghai Jiaotong University's "Siyuan-1" high-performance computer this time uses Intel's latest Whitley platform Icelake CPU.
Specific model Xeon Platium 8358, 32 core, clock frequency 2.6Ghz.
The GPU is also not saved, directly on the NVIDIA flagship A100.
The server chassis adopts Lenovo's ThinkSystem SD650 V2 and SD650-N V2, equipped with Lenovo's "Poseidon" warm water cooling solution.
Warm water cooling technology here is the key to saving floor space.
Cooling water comes into direct contact with the CPU, memory, and other thermogenic components, taking away the heat through a flow cycle, eliminating the fan's position.
Because the thermal conductivity of water is much stronger than that of air, it can be placed more densely, reaching 5 times the computational density.
Further, because the use of 50 ° C warm water, and the space of the chiller and heat exchanger is omitted, the footprint of the compressor room can be further improved.
Warm water cooling technology also improves energy efficiency (PUE, Power Usage Effectiveness).
The average PUE in China's data centers is 1.9, which means that for every 1 kWh of electricity, an additional 0.9 kWh of electricity is needed to dissipate heat from the computing equipment.
The PUE value of the new computing center of Shanghai Jiaotong University can reach 1.1, saving 42% of electricity and carbon dioxide emissions.
Finally, the effluent temperature of the warm water heat dissipation system is 60 ° C, and this waste heat is not wasted.
In winter, the waste heat is used for heating the area connected by the sphere in the middle of the experimental building.
It can also be used for hot water heating in the canteen kitchen, dehumidification in the basement, and air conditioning temperature control in two laboratories: topological quantum and time projection.
△ Experimental building sphere area
According to Shanghai Jiaotong University, the waste heat recovery and reuse program can reduce carbon emissions by about 950 tons and about 10% per year, while saving more than 1.5 million yuan per year.
The experimental building of the Lee Zheng Dao Research Institute has been officially opened recently and has become the new home of all the staff of the Institute.
It seems that this winter, scientific researchers can not only enjoy the powerful computing power provided by supercomputing, but also feel the warmth brought by the computing center.
Speaking of which, the new scientific computing center of Shanghai Jiaotong University has only been built since April.
At that time, it was the 125th anniversary of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing decided to personally invest 100 million yuan to build a first-class high-performance computing center in the country's universities, which was delivered within this year.
At the unveiling ceremony of the Center for Scientific Computing on December 14, Jiaotong University also signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Lenovo Group.
Lenovo Group will continue to invest 200 million yuan in technology research and development, talent training, investment incubation and other fields in the next three years.
Investment includes the establishment of joint laboratories, joint training of professional master's/doctoral students, the establishment of scholarships and grants, entrepreneurship incubation funds and other industrial research cooperation projects.
So why did Shanghai Jiao Tong Choose to Cooperate with Lenovo?
On the one hand, Yang Yuanqing is an alumnus of the 81st class of the Department of Computer Science of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
Here's another little story.
When Yang Yuanqing himself was studying at Shanghai Jiaotong University, the entire computer department had very few computers, basically donated by An Wang, an earlier alumni entrepreneur, who was inspired to give back to his alma mater in the future.
On the other hand, Lenovo's strength as a supercomputing supplier is also very strong.
In the global supercomputing list TOP500, Lenovo as a manufacturer has won the first place in market share for 8 consecutive years.
In addition to donating to Shanghai Jiaotong University, Lenovo Supercomputing will also provide accurate to minute-level and 100-meter weather forecasting services at the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics.
For the new scientific computing center, for the new experimental building, academician Zhang Jie, the new director of the Li Zhengdao Research Institute, has made a vision:
The Li Zhengdao Research Institute should be built into the world's top frontier basic research institutions, form the "Shanghai School", and play the role of the innovation engine of new research and development institutions.
Let's wait and see.