Colsa does calculations at MACH 5

Company building machine here that would be third-fastest in the world

Sunday, July 25, 2004

By BRIAN CASTRO

Times Business Writer, bcastro@student.umass.edu

To calculate the intricacies of computational fluid dynamics for hypersonic flight, divide the whole area around an aircraft into 16.7 million points. At each point, evaluate 16 different equations describing wind velocity, pressure, temperature and other physical parameters.

That's a total of 268 million calculations done at each step, and there are thousands of these steps to test 3 milliseconds of flight. Keep in mind that it takes 1 million milliseconds to equal a second.

Huntsville-based Colsa Corp. did this with older-generation mainframe computers, but it took eight months to get those 3 milliseconds.

So Colsa got a faster computer, an IBM SP supercomputer. That cut the time down to a month. Still not fast enough.

"Our intent was and is to get that eight months down to less than eight hours," said Dr. John Medeiros, senior scientist for Colsa.

The company recently announced the purchase of 1,566 Apple Computer Xserve servers to build "MACH 5," a computer Colsa says could become one of the world's fastest. The supercomputer cuts the calculation time to overnight, drastically reducing the time it takes to develop flight system designs.

"We don't have to wait so long to get things done," said Dr. Anthony DiRienzo, executive vice president of Colsa. "It will mean faster research."

Colsa believes its work could launch Huntsville as a center for high-speed computing and technology, attracting more talent and research here.

Under the hood

MACH 5 stands for Multiple Advanced Computers for Hypersonic, G5. Colsa's MACH 5 cobbles together 1,566 Xserve servers running on 64-bit G5 dual processors, Apple's top consumer line of processors. That amounts to 3,132 processors that will run at 2.0 GHz, or gigahertz, each.

The machine can run at 25 teraflops - the theoretical, maximum performance for this machine, not the highest speed that it will run at start-up. Like the engine in a car, a computer's parts can overheat and perform differently under varying conditions.

Colsa estimates that the computer will initially run at 60 percent efficiency at start-up - 15 teraflops. That makes MACH 5 the third-fastest computer in the world, according to rankings from TOP500, an industry supercomputing organization.

MACH 5 follows "Thunder" at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California (which runs at 22 teraflops) and Earth Simulator in Japan (36 teraflops).

Why Apple?

Colsa solicited bids to develop the MACH 5. Out of all the submissions, Apple met Colsa's criteria based on build cost, hardware price, facility size and vendor reliability.

Apple's G5 processor and its motherboard had the best performance and best "facility footprint," or space to house the computer, said Mike Whitlock, project leader. Also, the cost to maintain this system will be significantly less than most systems, he said.

"When Apple designed the Xserve servers, we had high density in mind," said Alex Grossman, director of server and storage hardware at Apple. Each Xserve is 1.75 inches tall; the units are stored in 41 racks, each seven feet tall and two feet deep.

"Think of these as big pizza boxes that stack neatly on each other," Grossman said.

The trays dissipate heat better and the system is air-cooled, not liquid-cooled, making it more economical. The air cooling system pumps 150 tons of air conditioning into the facility. Why so much? Whitlock said turning the system on can instantly raise the room temperature by as much as 12 degrees.

"It takes the energy of 200 average homes to power this machine," Medeiros said.

The MACH 5 will cost $5.8 million to purchase, install, test and initially run. In comparison, it cost $350 million for Japan-based NEC Corp. to build the current supercomputer leader, Earth Simulator.

A new approach

Apple, known for its user-friendly computers for the lay person, has been angling into high performance computing for a number of years.

"Apple is not necessarily a player (in supercomputers); that's done by the bigger guys like Cray, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard," said Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst.

Apple has typically been embraced by academic departments that build departmental clusters of 16, 32 or 64 computers. Then came System X, a 1100 G5 power Mac supercomputer at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which briefly made the TOP500 list in November 2003.

According to Medeiros, more than 60 percent of supercomputers that appear on the TOP500 are "clusters."

That approach, "clustering" several computers together, is different from "mainframes," the large hulking towers with integrated parts that portray the typical image of supercomputers. Clustering is growing as a reliable technology, but the real potential translates to cheap, "home-made" supercomputers.

"Getting supercomputers down in price makes it affordable to test more applications," said Bill Killingsworth, director of the office for economic development at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

Colsa is building MACH 5 for the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center, a division of the United States Army's Research and Development Command located at Redstone Arsenal. The supercomputer is expected to be in use by the Army this fall.

In addition to MACH 5's lower cost, it's speed and versatility will lower the cost of testing.

"Simulations allow alternative designs without incurring the expense of building prototypes," Killingsworth said.

NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which have joint partnerships with the Army, also stand to benefit from the computer. MACH 5 will be used to simulate supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, engines running from mach six to mach 10, or up to 7,600 miles per hour. A lot of the work will go towards antimissile defense.

"In four to five years we could have working prototypes of jet engines or missiles as a result of this faster speed," DiRienzo said. "You have to be very accurate in order to intercept a target at that speed."

According to Whitlock, the Colsa project leader, it's not inconceivable to use up the facility's remaining space to someday push MACH 5 to run 70 teraflops - three times its initial maximum speed.

Besides its military uses, any application that requires crunching big numbers would benefit from this technology, such as developing pharmaceuticals, mapping genomes or simulating weather patterns, he said.

"This will reinforce Huntsville as a strong center of simulation," Killingsworth said. "This could attract more research to the area, more talented people, more technology and more money."




Colsa does calculations at MACH 5 Company building machine here that would be third-fastest in the world Sunday, July 25, 2004 By BRIAN CASTRO Times Business Writer, bcastro@student.umass.edu To calculate the intricacies of computational fluid dynamics for hypersonic flight, divide the whole area around an aircraft into 16.7 million points. At each point, evaluate 16 different equations describing wind velocity, pressure, temperature and other physical parameters. That's a total of 268 million calculations done at each step, and there are thousands of these steps to test 3 milliseconds of flight. Keep in mind that it takes 1 million milliseconds to equal a second. Huntsville-based Colsa Corp. did this with older-generation mainframe computers, but it took eight months to get those 3 milliseconds. So Colsa got a faster computer, an IBM SP supercomputer. That cut the time down to a month. Still not fast enough. "Our intent was and is to get that eight months down to less than eight hours," said Dr. John Medeiros, senior scientist for Colsa. The company recently announced the purchase of 1,566 Apple Computer Xserve servers to build "MACH 5," a computer Colsa says could become one of the world's fastest. The supercomputer cuts the calculation time to overnight, drastically reducing the time it takes to develop flight system designs. "We don't have to wait so long to get things done," said Dr. Anthony DiRienzo, executive vice president of Colsa. "It will mean faster research." Colsa believes its work could launch Huntsville as a center for high-speed computing and technology, attracting more talent and research here. Under the hood MACH 5 stands for Multiple Advanced Computers for Hypersonic, G5. Colsa's MACH 5 cobbles together 1,566 Xserve servers running on 64-bit G5 dual processors, Apple's top consumer line of processors. That amounts to 3,132 processors that will run at 2.0 GHz, or gigahertz, each. The machine can run at 25 teraflops - the theoretical, maximum performance for this machine, not the highest speed that it will run at start-up. Like the engine in a car, a computer's parts can overheat and perform differently under varying conditions. Colsa estimates that the computer will initially run at 60 percent efficiency at start-up - 15 teraflops. That makes MACH 5 the third-fastest computer in the world, according to rankings from TOP500, an industry supercomputing organization. MACH 5 follows "Thunder" at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in California (which runs at 22 teraflops) and Earth Simulator in Japan (36 teraflops). Why Apple? Colsa solicited bids to develop the MACH 5. Out of all the submissions, Apple met Colsa's criteria based on build cost, hardware price, facility size and vendor reliability. Apple's G5 processor and its motherboard had the best performance and best "facility footprint," or space to house the computer, said Mike Whitlock, project leader. Also, the cost to maintain this system will be significantly less than most systems, he said. "When Apple designed the Xserve servers, we had high density in mind," said Alex Grossman, director of server and storage hardware at Apple. Each Xserve is 1.75 inches tall; the units are stored in 41 racks, each seven feet tall and two feet deep. "Think of these as big pizza boxes that stack neatly on each other," Grossman said. The trays dissipate heat better and the system is air-cooled, not liquid-cooled, making it more economical. The air cooling system pumps 150 tons of air conditioning into the facility. Why so much? Whitlock said turning the system on can instantly raise the room temperature by as much as 12 degrees. "It takes the energy of 200 average homes to power this machine," Medeiros said. The MACH 5 will cost $5.8 million to purchase, install, test and initially run. In comparison, it cost $350 million for Japan-based NEC Corp. to build the current supercomputer leader, Earth Simulator. A new approach Apple, known for its user-friendly computers for the lay person, has been angling into high performance computing for a number of years. "Apple is not necessarily a player (in supercomputers); that's done by the bigger guys like Cray, IBM, and Hewlett-Packard," said Tim Bajarin, an industry analyst. Apple has typically been embraced by academic departments that build departmental clusters of 16, 32 or 64 computers. Then came System X, a 1100 G5 power Mac supercomputer at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, which briefly made the TOP500 list in November 2003. According to Medeiros, more than 60 percent of supercomputers that appear on the TOP500 are "clusters." That approach, "clustering" several computers together, is different from "mainframes," the large hulking towers with integrated parts that portray the typical image of supercomputers. Clustering is growing as a reliable technology, but the real potential translates to cheap, "home-made" supercomputers. "Getting supercomputers down in price makes it affordable to test more applications," said Bill Killingsworth, director of the office for economic development at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. Colsa is building MACH 5 for the Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center, a division of the United States Army's Research and Development Command located at Redstone Arsenal. The supercomputer is expected to be in use by the Army this fall. In addition to MACH 5's lower cost, it's speed and versatility will lower the cost of testing. "Simulations allow alternative designs without incurring the expense of building prototypes," Killingsworth said. NASA and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which have joint partnerships with the Army, also stand to benefit from the computer. MACH 5 will be used to simulate supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, engines running from mach six to mach 10, or up to 7,600 miles per hour. A lot of the work will go towards antimissile defense. "In four to five years we could have working prototypes of jet engines or missiles as a result of this faster speed," DiRienzo said. "You have to be very accurate in order to intercept a target at that speed." According to Whitlock, the Colsa project leader, it's not inconceivable to use up the facility's remaining space to someday push MACH 5 to run 70 teraflops - three times its initial maximum speed. Besides its military uses, any application that requires crunching big numbers would benefit from this technology, such as developing pharmaceuticals, mapping genomes or simulating weather patterns, he said. "This will reinforce Huntsville as a strong center of simulation," Killingsworth said. "This could attract more research to the area, more talented people, more technology and more money." Copyright 2004 al.com. All Rights Reserved.