L'hypercube

160 cores in the pursuit of building physics advanced computation 🧮

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Since 2017, L’hypercube has been carrying out detailed airflow simulations and implementing numerical optimisation procedures. These methods require significant computing power, which until now has been provided by “virtual machines” in the Azure cloud from Microsoft. The team thus had 24 body-built ‘machines’ (8 ultra-scalable logic cores and 56 to 112 GB of RAM), which could be switched on on demand, giving it a high level of responsiveness.

This solution, which we had been using for 2 years, limited us in terms of responsiveness (IT maintenance) and connectivity (speed of data transfer), with an associated cost.

The AREP IT Department therefore decided to invest in a permanent computing server… And now it’s done! It has just been delivered in kit form.

Processeurs physique calculateur
The 4 processors

So we’re talking about a computing rack with 4 processors, each with 20 cores capable of hyperthreading (virtualisation of a second core), giving a total of 160 cores dedicated to building physics simulation! That’s the equivalent of more than 25 high-performance computers, for 3D visualisation, for example.

160 coeurs en action calculateur
The 160 cores in action

Today, this “beast”, with 256GB of RAM, expandable to 3TB, runs on an open-source Linux operating system (Debian 9).

Many thanks to AREP IT Services for their advice, support and energy!