Piz Daint (supercomputer)
Piz Daint is a supercomputer located at the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) in Lugano, Switzerland. It is a Cray XC50 system and, for a significant period, was one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, noted for its energy efficiency.
The system is named after Piz Daint, a mountain in the Swiss Alps in the canton of Graubünden.
Piz Daint is primarily used for scientific research across a wide range of disciplines, including climate modeling, materials science, astrophysics, and life sciences. Researchers utilize the supercomputer to perform complex simulations and analyze large datasets, enabling them to gain insights into fundamental scientific questions.
The architecture of Piz Daint is heterogeneous, featuring both traditional CPUs and NVIDIA GPUs. This combination allows for efficient execution of various computational workloads, leveraging the strengths of each type of processor. The GPUs are particularly beneficial for highly parallel computations common in scientific simulations.
Key components of the system include:
- Processors: Intel Xeon CPUs and NVIDIA Tesla GPUs
- Interconnect: Cray Aries interconnect
- Operating System: Cray Linux Environment (based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server)
- Storage: A high-performance parallel file system for managing large volumes of data.
Throughout its operational lifetime, Piz Daint has undergone upgrades and enhancements to improve its performance and capabilities. It remains a significant resource for the Swiss and international scientific communities. While other supercomputers have surpassed it in raw performance, Piz Daint continues to contribute significantly to scientific discovery.
The supercomputer provides access to a diverse set of software tools and libraries optimized for scientific computing, facilitating efficient development and execution of complex simulations. CSCS provides comprehensive support to users, including training and consulting services, to ensure effective utilization of the system's resources.