diff --git a/HPC_core_losses.md b/HPC_core_losses.md index b7add66..3c62297 100644 --- a/HPC_core_losses.md +++ b/HPC_core_losses.md @@ -1,7 +1,10 @@ As requested, over the next 12 months we will (probably) be losing: - 1/8th of Polaris (5312/8 = 664 cores) - Arc2: (3040 cores, plus private nodes) - + 1/8th of Polaris (5312/8 = 664 cores, plus 192 private cores) + Arc2: (3040 cores, plus 2352 private cores) + Marc1: (1236 private cores, including a couple of 3TB RAM nodes) + + => 7484 cores (3704 public, 3780 private) + Arc4 will probably replace the 3040 we're losing from A2, but until we know how much we can spend we can't really estimate that core count. @@ -11,4 +14,12 @@ GPU is useful but we might want to consider spending in a similar way to A3, ie: 2nd tranche we take a greater look at novel architectures, should the community wish. -Anything else? +That's assuming we alter the way we schedule cluster purchases. We currently +buy a completely new cluster every 2 years and retire after 4 (or so) +years. This has the advantage of always having two machines so that WHEN one +breaks, the other can be used. + +The existing model probably remains the best practical option with biennial +procurements after all, as a new -> upgrade -> new -> upgrade cadence implies +running compute for much longer than 4 years to maintain this resilience. + diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index f42387e..842dfbe 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -12,11 +12,37 @@ * We now have about 2-3 times the number of active users of the ARC service than we did 5 years ago. Since investment in both people and equipment has remained static, the amount of support and resource available per researcher has dropped. * We are probably heading for a contraction in the number of cores next year as quite of kit is getting old and we have insufficient investment to replace at a similar level. +### Machine details + +#### Current machines + +* ARC3 (EOL 2021?) +..* 6336 cores, 26 GPUs and 2 Xeon Phi "Knights Landing" for general use +..* 888 cores and 18 GPUs (2017 vintage) owned by research groups in FBS, ENV, MAPS +* ARC2 (EOL 2019?) +..* 3040 cores for general use +..* 2352 cores (various 2010-2015 vintages) owned by research groups in ENG, ENV, MAPS +* MARC1 (EOL 2019?) +..* 1236 cores owned by LIDA research groups in MEDH, ENV + +#### Previous major procurements + +* 2009 (ARC1, Sun) - 445 gbp/core [240 nodes / 1888+64 cores / 869565.21 gbp] +* 2010 (MHD, HP) - 362 gbp/core [160 nodes / 1920 cores / 695175 gbp] +* 2012 (N8HPC, SGI) - 463 gbp/core [332 nodes / 5312 cores / 2459060.40 gbp] +* 2013 (ARC2, HP) - 329 gbp/core [190 nodes / 3040 cores / 999600 gbp] +* 2014 (HERC1, SGI) - ? gbp/core [1 node / 256 cores / ? gbp] +* 2015 (MARC1, HP) - 614 gbp/core [98 nodes / 1236 cores / 758936.16 gbp] +* 2016 (ARC3, Dell) - 302 gbp/core [167 nodes (4008 cores) + 2 GPU nodes(4 GPUs) => cost equiv to "96" std cores / 1239348.0 gbp] +* 2017 (ARC3.5, Dell) - 295 gbp/core [121 nodes (2904 cores) + 6 GPU nodes(24 GPUs) => cost equiv to "576" std cores / 1027606.42 gbp ] + + ## Regional High Performance Computing -* We have also been running an additional 5,500 cores as a regional machine on behalf of the N8 Research Partnership (soon to be +* We have also been running an additional 5,312 cores as a regional machine on behalf of the N8 Research Partnership (soon to be decommissioned) * 500 external users of the N8 machine. +* Also has 192 cores owned by a research group in MAPS ## Integrated Research Campus