Assist in the construction of a digital Suzhou Xijiao Liverpool University supercomputing platform for use

After nearly a year of preparation and construction, the supercomputing platform of Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University has officially started operation recently, providing stable and efficient computing power support services to all university researchers, meeting the demand for computing power in multiple research fields of the university, and assisting the development of university research.It is reported that the platform adopts advanced CPU and GPU heterogeneous computing architecture

After nearly a year of preparation and construction, the supercomputing platform of Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University has officially started operation recently, providing stable and efficient computing power support services to all university researchers, meeting the demand for computing power in multiple research fields of the university, and assisting the development of university research.

It is reported that the platform adopts advanced CPU and GPU heterogeneous computing architecture. The first phase includes two CPU computing nodes, one large memory fat node, six NVIDIARTX3090 eight card GPU nodes, and two NVIDIAA800 four card GPU nodes. The platform can share a capacity of up to 648TB of concurrent storage.

Efficiently serving scientific research work of teachers and students, optimizing management

Not long ago, Zeng Yige, a 2023 undergraduate graduate from the Department of Biological Sciences, expressed her gratitude to Guo Yongfu, an education system engineer from the Office of Management Information Technology and Systems (MITS), in addition to her thesis supervisor, in her graduation thesis.

Zeng Yige's graduation project focuses on the field of bioinformatics, and completing research projects requires a solid foundation in computer science. When she encounters technical operational questions and difficulties, she proactively seeks help from MITS professionals. Professor Guo Yongfu is a professional in the operation and maintenance of high-performance computing platforms, with several years of industry experience before joining Xipu. He started by helping Zeng Yige install biocomputing related software from the beginning. Based on the students' questions, he gradually taught Yige how to debug the software, write resource scheduling scripts, and guide her to download publicly available NCBI data

Zeng Yige graduated with excellent grades and went to study in the United States. In her graduation thesis gratitude, she wrote, "With the patient help of Professor Guo Yongfu, I have learned the skills required for data processing and analysis on cluster computers, which are crucial for my future learning and research

Director Feng Xudong of MITS introduced that supercomputing platforms not only provide computing power support for university research activities, but also provide professional technical support and operation and maintenance management services.

Taking the supercomputing platform as an opportunity, expanding information technology services to support scientific research development and creating more friendly and convenient technical support for researchers are the areas that MITS will focus on in the future, "he said.

Reduce costs and increase efficiency to assist Suzhou's digital industry

Assistant Vice President (Research) Professor Ma Fei is a user of the supercomputing platform and a member of the expert consultation group during the preparatory construction period.

There are many researchers in his school of mathematics and physics who have high requirements and demands for computational power in their research projects. Before the establishment of the school level supercomputing platform, each college submitted budget requests for corresponding computing power requirements at the beginning of each academic year's budget cycle based on research needs. After the budget review and approval, each college purchased resources to support their own research activities.

Professor Ma Fei mentioned some limitations of this model. "Due to the lack of professional operation and maintenance personnel in the department, the equipment is relatively lacking in daily maintenance, and software updates are not timely, which affects the ease of use, stability, and security of the equipment. In addition, the computing resources of each college are independently and decentralized, and there may also be idle resources and low utilization efficiency

Under the new model, the MITS office of the University Knowledge and Information Center is responsible for the construction and management of the university supercomputing platform, providing comprehensive computing technology support and operation and maintenance management services.

Director Feng Xudong introduced that the plan for the supercomputing platform was proposed by MITS after research and demonstration. During the preparation and construction process, it received strong support from an expert consulting group composed of representatives of scientific research personnel on campus. Currently, it operates in a self built and co built mode with the college. MITS conducts centralized allocation of computing resources for the following year based on the computing power applications submitted by each college each academic year and the evaluation of the efficiency of resource utilization in the previous academic year. While ensuring the priority use rights of each college, idle computing resources are allocated reasonably according to demand. In addition to optimizing the allocation and efficiency of computing resources, MITS is also responsible for the daily operation and maintenance of equipment to extend its service life. Professional personnel provide technical support services to users to improve their user experience.

The optimization of management mode has also effectively reduced the cost of university operation. It is understood that the construction and operation of the supercomputing platform saved about 10 million yuan in the investment of related computing resources for universities in the same year.

Dr. Bi Xin, Director of the Xipu Knowledge and Information Center, stated that with the construction and improvement of the Xipu supercomputing platform and management level, the future plan is to gradually open up the university's computing resources to research institutes and enterprises in Suzhou, enhance the contribution of the university to local development, and help Suzhou build a national computing industry highland and a national digital development benchmark city.

(Su Bao Rong Media Reporter Yuan Yi Correspondent Kou Bo)

Editor Zhao Chenmin

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