ERCIM NEWS 74 July 2008 25
The Andalusian Scien i ic Compu ing
Cen e (CICA) is a supe compu ing cen-
e in Andalusia ha p o ides supe com-
pu ing nodes and he Andalusian e-Sci-
ence Po al o RASCI (see Figu e 1).
CICA In as uc u e
Cu en ly, CICA has a dis ibu ed clus-
e . I consis s o a se o nodes wi h In el
Co e 2 Duo o In el Quad Co e CPUs
and 4 GB o 8 GB o RAM, connec ed
h ough gigabi e he ne . The ba ch sys-
ems ins alled a e he Sun G id Engine
(SGE) and Condo in e ace. A p esen ,
he Web in e ace applica ion allows
use s o queue hei jobs in o Condo
and SGE o subsequen execu ion by
he clus e .
CICA p omo es he use o open-sou ce
so wa e, and he supe compu ing nodes
un unde Linux, make use o open-
sou ce lib a ies and u ili ies, and use
se e al OS.
The Andalusian Supe compu ing Ne -
wo k will allow nodes loca ed a di e -
en uni e si ies and esea ch cen es o
be joined oge he in a uni ied compu -
ing sys em. To achie e his, a echnical
commi ee ( o in as uc u e manage-
men ), an access commi ee ( o access
managemen ) and a s a egic commi ee
ha e been es ablished.
O he se ices a e o e ed by CICA o
use s o he Andalusian Supe compu ing
Ne wo k, including assis ance in pa al-
lelizing applica ions o ake ad an age
o he G id in as uc u e. This in ol es
p o iding p og amming cou ses, expe
ad ice and consul ancy o op imiza ion
and pa alleliza ion o applica ions and
he use o message-passing lib a ies o
he e icien use o dis ibu ed memo y.
Wi h hese se ices CICA in ends o
inc ease he numbe o use s who can
po en ially ake ad an age o he supe -
compu ing in as uc u e, a he han
limi ing i s use o hose who a e al eady
echnically p o icien (see Figu e 2).
All o his makes i possible o b ing
supe compu ing echnology o a he e o-
geneous communi y, allowing o as e
echnological p og ess, and also o
inc ease he demand o his ype o
se ice, due o i s simplici y o use.
Web In e ace
Ra he han being g aphical o accessi-
ble h ough a Web in e ace, clus e
queue manage in e aces end o be
accessed h ough a command line in e -
ace om a Linux o Windows console.
Di e en in e aces ha e been de el-
oped o he Condo queue manage ,
each wi h a speci ic pu pose depending
Design o a Func ional A chi ec u e
o he Managemen o Clus e Resou ces
and Se ices h ough he Web
by Juan An onio O ega, Jo ge Can ón, Ana Sil a, Da id Bosque and F ancisco Velasco
In 2006 Jun a de Andalucía c ea ed he Andalusian Supe compu ing Ne wo k (RASCI). RASCI
consis s o supe compu ing nodes dis ibu ed geog aphically h oughou Andalusia ha p o ide
he egion wi h a la ge numbe o compu ing esou ces. Inc eased ne wo k bandwid h, mo e
powe ul compu e s and accep ance o he In e ne ha e d i en a g ow h in demand o new and
be e ways o u ilize high-pe o mance echnical compu ing (HPTC) esou ces.
Figu e 1: CICA connec ions.
Figu e 2: Supe compu ing in as uc u e.
Supe compu ing
Nodes
S o age Dis ibu ed
Clus e
Ne wo ks
Web In e ace
S anda d Memo y
Se e
S o age Sun Clus e
SGE Condo To que
Condo
SGE
To que
Ta eas
SGE
Ta eas
To que
Ta eas
Dis ibu ed
Clus e
S anda d Memo y
Se e Sha ed Memo y
Se e s
RASCI RICA
CICA UMA UGR
ERCIM NEWS 74 July 2008 26
Special Theme: Supe compu ing a Wo k
on who is making use o i . One o he
se ices o which his queue manage 's
de elope s ha e con ibu ed is he use
o Web se ices (SOAP-WSDL). Fo i s
implemen a ion hey ha e de eloped
he Bi dBa h package, which, by means
o WSDL calls, allows jobs in he clus-
e o be submi ed and managed. The
main incon enience p esen ed by hese
calls is he ease o disco e y and index-
a ion by sea ch engine Web c awle s,
since hey a e accessible hough URLs.
They can hus be ound and s o ed
h ough sea ch engines. Mo eo e , he
managemen capabili ies a e limi ed o
he unc ionali ies implemen ed by
Bi dBa h de elope s.
The a chi ec u e p esen ed by he
CICA-named Clus e Looking Class
(CLG) allows he use o make use o
esou ces h ough he Web, elimina ing
he need o en e commands h ough a
command line console. This ease o use
ex ends he each o compu ing se ices
o a g ea e numbe o use s as a echni-
cal p o ile is no longe equi ed. A
p esen , his in e ace is ope a ional a
he Andalusian e-Science Po al, gi ing
egis e ed use s access o compu a ional
esou ces connec ed o he Andalusian
Compu ing scien i ic Ne wo k (RICA)
and Andalusian Supe compu ing Ne -
wo k (RASCI).
Howe e , wi h he abili y o access he
sys em h ough he Web, secu i y
becomes a c i ical aspec . In a sys em
such as his, he high le el o compu -
ing powe u ns i in o a e y powe ul
ool o illici uses such as b u e- o ce
passwo d c acking. In o de o a oid
his p oblem, CLG de ines bo h a logi-
cal and a physical a chi ec u e ha
allows he use o manage and submi
jobs and o ecei e hei esul s,
uncoupling he physical a chi ec u e o
he clus e om he Web in e ace and
hus pu ing an end o secu i y p ob-
lems.
Fu he Wo k
In he u u e, he supe compu ing
esou ces o CICA will g ow and will
be included in his in as uc u e. Ou
es ima ion is ha his will lead o bigge
massi e s o age, sha ed memo y
se e s, mo e dis ibu ed nodes and
new ba ch sys ems.
Links:
Andalusian e-Science po al:
h ps://eciencia.cica.es
Condo P ojec HTC:
h p://www.cs.wisc.edu/condo
Please con ac :
Juan An onio O ega
Cen o In o má ico Cien í ico de
Andalucía, Spain
E-mail: [email p o ec ed]
A ay p ocessing is a good candida e o
inc easing compu ing powe by using
pa allel compu a ion. Addi ionally, i
can help o sol e a chi ec u al p oblems
(eg dis ibu ion o con ol signals on a
chip). The e ec i eness o implemen a-
ions is measu ed by a se o pa ame e s,
namely by he silicon a ea (A), execu-
ion ime (T), dissipa ed powe (P), con-
sumed ene gy (E) and numbe o
inpu /ou pu pins (#I/O).
A numbe o di e en implemen a ions
o a ay p ocesso s a e comme cially
a ailable. In his p ojec we ha e mainly
concen a ed on he opog aphic IBM
Cell he e ogeneous a ay p ocesso
a chi ec u e, because i s de elopmen
en i onmen is open sou ce and we
wished o compa e he esul s wi h
hose om ou p e ious FPGA ( ield
p og ammable ga e a ay)-based imple-
men a ions.
The Cell B oadband Engine A chi ec-
u e (CBEA) is designed o achie e
high-pe o mance compu ing wi h be -
e a ea/pe o mance and powe /pe -
o mance a ios han he con en ional
mul i-co e a chi ec u es. The CBEA
de ines a he e ogeneous mul i-p oces-
so a chi ec u e whe e gene al-pu pose
p ocesso s called Powe P ocesso Ele-
men s (PPE), and Single Ins uc ion
Mul iple Da a (SIMD) p ocesso s
called Syne gis ic P ocesso Elemen s
(SPE), a e connec ed ia a high-speed
on-chip cohe en bus called an Elemen
In e connec Bus (EIB). The CBEA
a chi ec u e is lexible and he a io o
he di e en elemen s can be de ined
acco ding o he equi emen s o di e -
en applica ions. The i s implemen a-
ion o he CBEA is he Cell B oadband
Engine (Cell BE o in o mally Cell)
designed o he Sony PlayS a ion 3
game console, which con ains one PPE
and eigh SPEs.
In his wo k we ha e concen a ed on
an e icien CNN implemen a ion on
he Cell a chi ec u e. The basic CNN
simula ion ke nel was success ully
implemen ed on he Cell BE, and bo h
linea and nonlinea CNN a ays can be
simula ed. The ke nel was op imized
acco ding o he special equi emen s o
Exploi a ion o Cell Mul i-P ocesso A ay
in Solu ion o Spa io-Tempo al Dynamics
by Zol án Nagy, László Kék, Zol án Kincses, And ás Kiss and Pé e Szolgay
A ay compu e s can be use ul in he nume ical solu ion o spa io- empo al p oblems. IBM has
ecen ly in oduced a opog aphic a ay p ocesso called he Cell B oadband Engine (Cell BE).
Resea che s a he Cellula Senso y Wa e Compu e s Labo a o y o SZTAKI in collabo a ion wi h he
Depa men o In o ma ion Technology, Pázmány Pé e Ca holic Uni e si y, Budapes and he
Depa men o Image P ocessing and Neu ocompu ing, Pannon Uni e si y, Veszp ém, ha e
implemen ed a Cellula Neu al Ne wo k (CNN) simula ion ke nel on he Cell BE. The CNN simula ion
is op imized acco ding o he special equi emen s o he Cell BE and implemen s bo h linea and
nonlinea (piecewise linea ) empla es. We ha e used he CNN simula ion ke nel o sol e Na ie -
S okes pa ial di e en ial equa ions (PDEs) on he Cell a chi ec u e.