3XS HPC Cluster in a Box
The Mobile High Performance Computing Cluster
Building on the strengths of 3XS Systems bespoke designs for HPC servers, the Cluster in a Box (CIB) has been developed to provide a standalone solution for the most demanding workloads including financial and climate modelling, Monte Carlo simulations, exploratory data analysis, genomic sequencing, computational chemistry, multiphysics and fluid dynamics.
Created for true high performance the cluster has been crafted for the sciences, tested in industry and perfected for rapid and easy deployment for any use case – the mobile CIB bring the power of true HPC into the office. There’s no need for specialised server rooms or power as 3XS CIB solutions are totally self-contained and scalable as new compute nodes can be added at any time. Furthermore, as it has its own network, there is no latency impact on workflows.
Low Noise
Each node is water-cooled to keep noise to a minimum so the CIB can be installed in office environments. This also offers energy savings up to 40% over comparative air-cooled clusters.
Flexible deployment
Integrated networking, power protection and cable management means the CIB is self-contained and doesn’t need to be installed in a datacentre environment.
HPC Expertise
Designed in conjunction with CrunchYard the CIB is fully supported and serviced by a specialist HPC team, leaving you free to achieve the results you need.
CrunchYard – Delivering HPC Expertise
A genuine HPC solution is not only made up of optimised compute, networking and storage hardware - but a complex layer of management and orchestration tools and software packages. For over 15 years, CrunchYard has provided such integrated and fit-for-purpose HPC solutions to clients in industry, academia, the sciences and engineering. With large and small clients in diverse industry sectors all over the globe, CrunchYard unlocks the power of HPC so that businesses, scientists and engineers have the power of HPC at their disposal – cost-effectively, rapidly and without complexity. CrunchYard works closely with software providers and packages, as well as hardware partners such as Scan and 3XS Systems – to ensure users have HPC solutions that actually work for them. Regardless of your requirements, industry sector or location – CrunchYard gives you the power to simulate anything.
Example 3XS HPC CIB Specifications
The cluster hardware is shipped in a self-contained watercooled rack cabinet on castors and is configurable with CPU and GPU nodes, along with dedicated storage and network and UPS protection. An example configuration is shown below.
4x Compute Nodes:
• AMD EPYC 64-core CPU
• 256GB DDR4 memory
• 2x 240GB SSDs
1x Management Node:
• AMD EPYC 16-core CPU
• 64GB DDR4 memory
• 2x 240GB SSDs
Storage:
• PEAK:AIO data server
• 32 - 330TB NVMe SSD storage
Networking:
• 10GbE Ethernet (Infiniband optional)
UPS:
• 3000VA
Software Stack
CrunchYard provide a full software stack of HPC-optimised applications, frameworks and schedulers in order to deliver seamless and secure compute power. These can be tailored so the system is optimally set-up for your particular workloads and projects.
Operating and File Systems
Your choice of Linux OS can be installed on the cluster alongside a variety of shared file systems such as NFS or Lustre, so any one file can be read by all the compute nodes.
Orchestration and Scheduling
Schedulers such as Slurm or OpenPBS ensure the optimal use of resources. They enable multiple users, or a single-user with multiple projects, to enjoy optimal performance. Resources can be allocated based on priorities.
Commercial Code Support
Native support for applications including ANSYS, STARCCM+, Matlab, OpenFOAM, CP2K, Julia, GROMACS, ADF, Blender, Seismic Unix, Octave, Python, R, FEKO, SAS, FVCOM, ElmerFEM, ESSS ROCKY, your own MPI code and more.
Open Source Support
The cluster is ready to go with standard message passing interfaces (MPI) already installed such as open MPI and MPICH. These are alongside several Open Source development compilers already included too.
The CIB security features can also be configured as per your requirements - including multi-factor authentication via an authenticator app or public / private keys. Additionally, file system encryption is available to be fully GDPR compliant and it is possible to air-gap the cluster, in the case of defence applications or proprietary information.
To discuss your HPC requirements with the Scan 3XS Systems team and CrunchYard experts, get in touch by clicking below.
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