Cambridge’s CSD3 system grows to new heights
The newest contribution to Cambridges growing CSD3 is the DiRAC’s DIaC system. With a requirement to run GRCHOMBO, MILC and AREPO codes, which are the dominant codes for DIaC. These codes were given equal waiting within the procurement
process.
Cambridge received two bids one for Intel Ice Lake and one for AMD Rome were received and benchmark data obtained on both systems. The Cambridges RSEs and project teams extensively run benchmarking exercises to determine which processor
would give the best performance. Cost comparisons and evaluation of any partnership agreement was also evaluated.
Based on the better summed waited performance scores for the GRCHOMBO, MILC and AREPO benchmarks, the cost per server was determined. Due to the cost profile of the Ice Lake system the performance/node was very competitive, and resulted
in the Intel Ice Lake processor being the best cost for performance.
The DIaC system spec has:
CPU
MEMORY
77TB of system memory
INTERCONNECT
HDR IB interconnect
DATA
4TB file space.
Each of the 299 nodes has:
CPU
2 * Intel Ice Lake CPUs with 38 cores giving 76 cores per node running at 2.4/3.4GHz
MEMORY
256GB of RAM, giving 3.368GB per core
INTERCONNECT
200Gbps HDR IB interconnect
DATA
Running CentOS8
