A-Slass

A-Slass is a system the size in a rack of a mounting cabinet, with the highest computing density, scalability, energy efficiency and reliability. The unique chassis integrates in a uniform computing resource of 2 head nodes, 256 computing nodes and 60 InfiniBand and Ethernet switches.

A-Class from within

On June 24, 2014 the company announced T-Platforms creation of the integrated supercomputer solution A-Slass facilitating transition of customers to calculations of multipetaFLOPS level.

Initial peak capacity of A-Class more than 420 TFLOPS on one system is also scaled up to 54 petaFLOPS due to consolidation of 128 chassis. The first released computing module contains four specialized motherboards equipped with the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v2 and the NVIDIA Tesla K40 accelerator.

The 1+1 configuration optimum implements NVIDIA GPU Direct technology and provides the greatest efficiency of the solution of computing problems of a different class. Capacity of processors and accelerators in the A-Class system is balanced with available capacity of interfaces of InfiniBand at the level of 3.3 GB / with to Tflops.

A system has the balanced and productive network infrastructure consisting of two Ethernet networks and two networks InfiniBand. One of independent networks FDR InfiniBand is used for MPI traffic, and the second serves for data exchange between computing nodes. A-Slass allows to implement different topology of switching of computing nodes, including modern 3D - and 4D-torus, Flattened butterfly and Hypercube for achievement of effective interaction of tens of thousands of computing nodes of the supercomputer.

The managing, computing and switching modules A-Class are cooled with hot water with inlet temperature up to 45 degrees Celsius and more than 50 degrees at the exit from modules. Electronic payments fasten directly on the special radiator skintight to components of payments for withdrawal of the generated heat.

The technology of direct cooling with hot water allows to reach high energy efficiency, it is essential to reduce operational noise in the computing hall and to implement the year-round mode of "free cooling" of a system, without purchase costs of compressors, refrigerators and their operation. In winter time customers can reuse already heated water for heating of premises.

In A-Class both hardware, and perspective software tools of increase in fault tolerance of the supercomputer are implemented. Two independent modules of management with the selected network factories Ethernet support hot swap, providing functions of failsafe management and monitoring of a system.

Independent servers of management A-Class allow to trace a status of components of a system and to manage loading and configurations of the set software. Independent input lines of power supply and "excess" power supplies of "hot" replacement also provide continuity and reliability of operation of the supercomputer of multipetaFLOPS level.

For June 23, 2014 Lomonosov Moscow State University holds comprehensive system testing of A-Class, providing information on performance of a 256-nodal configuration for placement of data on a new system in the list of the most productive supercomputers of the world Top500. In June, 2014 the separate A-Class system took the 130th position in this rating.

"A-Class is the impressive supercomputer solution. The latest system from T-Platforms will give us ampler opportunities of the choice of a system during preparation for creation of the new multipetaFLOPS supercomputer of MSU", - Vladimir Voyevodin, the associate director of RCC of MSU noted.

"At an early stage of creation A-Class we attentively analyzed requirements and wishes of our largest customer and the partner in scientific developments, Lomonosov Moscow State University" — Vsevolod Opanasenko, the CEO of JSC T-Platforms emphasized. — We densely worked with suppliers of components and technologies to reach necessary overall balance of performance and system effectiveness".

For June 23, 2014 the A-Class system in test phase and certification, is available to preorders.