Dell and Scali Partner to Provide High Performance Super Computing Cluster Solutions for Met Éreann and NMRC

Researchers will study global weather pattern studies and computational modelling using Dell Supercomputing Clusters and Scali Software.

IRELAND, 16th June, 2004 -Dell(tm) today announced that it has partnered with Scali to provide high performance computing cluster solutions for Met Éireann, the Irish Meteorological Service, and NMRC, the leading Irish ICT Research Institute. Dell has deployed and installed high performance Linux-based clusters to cost-effectively tackle advanced parallel computing tasks for both organisations. The software solutions in both installations have been provided by Scali and include PGI and Intel compilers as well as Red Hat Linux ES 3.0 Operating Systems. These recent deployments illustrate the growing momentum for Dell and Scali's High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC) solutions within the Irish Grid community.

The new cluster solution at Met Éireann is enabling the organisation to enhance the quality of the weather forecasts and weather services it provides. The Irish Meteorological Service chose a seven dual-processor node Dell PowerEdge(tm) 1750 server cluster powered by Scali Manage(tm) and Scali MPI Connect(tm) to run Hirlam, a powerful numerical weather forecasting system. This solution will be used as part of an important new project on regional climate changes, which will also predict Irish weather patterns over the next fifty years.

"As the leading provider of weather information in Ireland, it's essential that our computing systems are both highly available and very powerful - the meteorological models which we run on the new cluster are extremely demanding," said Mr Paul Halton, Head of IT Division, Met Éireann. "This solution was chosen by Met Éireann because of reliability, cost-effectiveness and manageability features that the Dell / Scali combination provided".

The newest cluster at NMRC, the largest multi-disciplinary ICT Research Centre in Ireland, is used for advanced ICT-related scientific research by the Computational Modelling and SFI Photonics Theory groups. The 48 dual-processor node Dell PowerEdge 1750 server cluster is powered by Scali Manage(tm) and Scali MPI Connect(tm), and provides an invaluable and powerful high performance computing resource enabling NMRC scientists to investigate novel nanoscale materials for future electronic and optoelectronic applications. This complex research impacts on existing systems and on future communications and electronic systems over a 5 to 10 year timeframe.

By choosing the Dell platform, NMRC extended its existing supercomputing capabilities for a fraction of the cost of a traditional supercomputer. Scali Manage provided NMRC with a simple cluster management and monitoring system while Scali MPI Connect ensured the Gigabit Ethernet interconnect technology was optimised. NMRC have also subsequently replaced open-source MPI on an older HPCC cluster with Scali software. This will significantly boost output and reduce operational costs through easier management.

"We chose the Dell and Scali combination after rigorous evaluation of performance, price and reliability. NMRC now has a powerful, optimised cluster in place which is providing real business value by boosting our research efforts while reducing our IT management costs," said Eamon O'Riain, IT Manager, NMRC.

Commenting on today's announcement, Mr. Tim McCarthy, General Manager, Dell Ireland said: "As computational needs continue to grow in complexity and larger data sets require analysis, customers are requiring higher levels of computational capability at much lower price points. Dell's High Performance Computing Clusters (HPCC) offer a solution that not only provides a powerful implementation of computing, but also is very cost effective when compared with the traditional method of using specialty computers designed for parallel computing. We believe that Dell's collaboration with Scali has resulted in best of breed clustering solutions for our customers, "said Tim McCarthy, General Manager, Dell Ireland "We are delighted that Met Éireann and NMRC view us as a trusted enterprise partner"

"The new installations at Met Éireann and NMRC highlight the momentum of Scali and Dell solutions in the Irish clustering market," said Bjorn Skare, President and CEO of Scali. "By combining Scali's in-depth expertise of HPCC environments with Dell's affordable, market-leading server hardware, we are providing Irish customers with optimised cluster configurations which provide real financial value. The Irish market is of growing importance to Scali and we're committed to deepening our understanding of the Irish Grid community to ensure we continue to develop HPCC solutions which continue to meet their requirements."

In February 2004, Dell and Scali opened a joint Cluster Expert Centre to provide customers with a pre-sales facility to design, validate and test, tailored high-performance computing cluster solutions in a controlled environment. The Expert Centre, which services the whole of Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), is located at Scali's facilities in Oslo, Norway.