SuperMUC Supercomputer Runs SUSE Linux Enterprise Server
NUREMBERG, Germany - Europe's most powerful supercomputer was officially inaugurated by IBM during a ceremony celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum (LRZ) of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences in Garching, Germany. Used to solve difficult scientific questions in physics and fluid dynamics, SuperMUC, powered by SUSE® Linux Enterprise Server, ranks number four in the June 2012 TOP 500 list of the world's fastest supercomputers. SuperMUC is a System X iDataPlex from IBM and is equipped with more than 155,000 processor cores, which deliver an aggregate peak performance of more than 3 Petaflops of computing power.
A special feature of SuperMUC is an innovative, warm-water cooling technology, inspired by the human blood circulation and developed by IBM, that results in 40 percent less energy consumption than traditional air-cooled machines. Additionally, the system allows energy to be captured and reused to heat the buildings of the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre Campus.
"SuperMUC is many times more efficient than its predecessor. Where it makes sense we use frequency scaling, a Linux kernel function delivered with SUSE Linux Enterprise, which allows us to run applications at their optimal operating point. This means we use, wherever possible, newly developed energy efficiency mechanisms in Linux," said Dr. Herbert Huber, head of high-performance systems at the LRZ.
"Since 1998, we have relied on SUSE for our high-performance computer sector at the Leibniz-Rechenzentrum. At that time, it was important to us that SUSE provided technical features that were not included in other Linux distributions," explained Professor Arndt Bode, head of LRZ. "But also important was the geographic vicinity, the direct connection to the development and product management teams at SUSE and their fast support response times. This is still a huge benefit for us and is why all of our high-performance computers and most other systems run on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server."
