Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) has introduced a sixth-generation high-performance computing cluster, Iridis 6, for the University of Southampton.
The new system upgrades and expands the existing capabilities of its predecessor, Iridis 5, which was first unveiled in 2018 and directly entered the Top500 supercomputer list at number 251.
Iridis 6 will improve system sustainability and performance, HPE said, and advance the university's existing research in areas such as genomics, aerodynamics and renewable batteries.
Key projects will include what is claimed to be the largest study of space debris ever undertaken, highlighting the risk posed by “mega-constellations” of satellites.
The University of Southampton said it provides some of the largest UK-based high-performance computing (HPC) resources to the public and commercial sectors, and offers consultancy and research services to UK businesses.
Over the past year, there has been an increased demand for HPC capabilities, driven by a growth in AI research efforts and an increase in the number of joint projects in which it is involved with local and regional companies.
“Investing in high-performance, next-generation computing infrastructure is crucial to ensuring the UK’s valued research and scientific communities have the tools they need to be globally competitive,” said Matt Harris, senior vice president and general manager, UK, Ireland, Middle East and Africa, HPE.
“The University of Southampton’s significant investment in Iridis 6 will support the next wave of scientific advancements. We are proud to help the University accelerate research and innovation that will contribute to the growth of the UK’s science and technology ecosystem.”
Everything you need to know about Iridis 6
The new system was built using HPE ProLiant Gen11 servers, powered by 4th Gen AMD EPYC processors, to deliver advanced performance to support computational science at scale.
HPE Services is providing dedicated on-site support to build, test and deploy the system, and said it is deploying Iridis 6 to optimize workloads to efficiently process data-intensive computing and research.
“We are very conscious of the fact that our HPC systems are responsible for a significant portion of our energy consumption,” said Chris Yorke, associate director of research IT at the University of Southampton.
“To align with our sustainability strategy for Iridis 6, we needed a system that delivered exponentially higher performance with lower power consumption, and HPE’s expertise in building energy-efficient HPC systems was crucial to achieving this.
“With HPE ProLiant servers we found a solution that offers four times the performance and requires only 70% of the energy compared to the system it replaces.”