The GW4 Isambard Tier-2 service for advanced computer architectures

该提案将为布里斯托、巴斯、卡迪夫和埃克塞特的GW 4联盟大学的Isambard 3 Tier-2国家HPC服务提供资金。Isambard 3将继续成功的Isambard 1和2项目，提供基于日益重要的Arm架构的超级计算机服务。Isambard 3将采用NVIDIA新的基于“Grace”Arm的处理器，该处理器将于2023年初推出，以构建快速且高能效的服务。伊桑巴德3号将搬进自己的专用设施，由布里斯托大学主办。这一新设施位于一个新的模块化数据中心内，将首次对处理器采用直接液体冷却，减少用于冷却系统的能源总量，并创造提取和利用废热的机会。我们预计将采购至少6个机架，55，000个核心的系统，这应该足够大，足以在2023年11月的SC超级计算机500强名单中排名。Isambard 3还将继续提供多架构比较系统（MACS），该系统将包括在Isambard 3服务的4年生命周期内发布的每个重要新CPU和GPU架构的2 - 4个节点。这将使Arm与来自Intel、AMD、NVIDIA和其他新兴供应商的最新CPU和GPU之间的架构进行科学严格的比较。与之前的服务相比，Isambard 3服务将具有扩大的支持团队，包括技术支持方面的6名RSE和2名系统管理员，以及0.5 FTE的项目经理，以及用户社区参与和开发方面的业务开发经理。总之，成功的基于Isambard Arm的Tier-2服务将扩展到支持整个UKRI的更广泛的用户社区，第一批基于Arm的服务器CPU专门针对顶级芯片供应商的HPC进行了优化。它将是世界上第一个这样的系统之一，并提供最节能，低碳，通用CPU服务。Grace处理器应该是Isambard用户社区中速度最快的处理器之一，我们希望将其扩展到天气和气候应用以及生命科学等领域。

This proposal is to fund the Isambard 3 Tier-2 national HPC service from the GW4 Alliance universities of Bristol, Bath, Cardiff and Exeter.Isambard 3 will follow on from the successful Isambard 1 & 2 projects, delivering a supercomputer service based on the increasingly important Arm architecture. Isambard 3 will employ NVIDIA's new 'Grace' Arm-based processors, due out in early 2023, to build a fast yet highly energy efficient service. Isambard 3 will be moving into its own dedicated facility, hosted by the University of Bristol. This new facility, homed within a new modular data centre, will for the first time employ direct liquid cooling to the processors, reducing the total amount of energy used for cooling the system, and creating the opportunity to extract and use the waste heat. We expect to procure a system of at least 6 racks, 55,000 cores, which should be large enough to rank in the Top500 list of supercomputers at SC in Nov 2023. Isambard 3 will also continue to provide a Multi Architecture Comparison System, or MACS, which will includes 2-4 nodes of every important new CPU and GPU architecture to be released during the 4 year lifetime of the Isambard 3 service. This will enable scientifically rigorous architectural comparisons between Arm and the latest CPUs and GPUs from Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, and other emerging providers.The Isambard 3 service will feature an expanded support team compared to previous services, including 6 RSEs and 2 systems administrators on the technical support side, as well as 0.5 FTE of project manager, and a business development manager on the user community engagement and development side. In summary, the successful Isambard Arm-based Tier-2 service will be expanding to support a much wider user community across all of UKRI, with the first Arm-based server CPUs optimised specifically for HPC from a top-tier silicon vendor. It will be one of the first such systems anywhere in the world, and deliver one of the most energy efficient, low carbon, general purpose CPU services available. The Grace processors should be amongst the fastest available for Isambard's user community, which we expect to expand into weather and climate applications, as well as life sciences and beyond.