Center for information services and high-performance computing

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Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH)
Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH)
ZIH logo
Category: University institute
Consist: since 2005
Membership: u. a. DFN, ZKI, DINI, ScaDS, GA
Facility location: Dresden
Management: Wolfgang E. Nagel
Employee: about 160
Homepage: http://zih.tu-dresden.de/

The Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing ( ZIH for short ) is a central scientific institution of the Technical University of Dresden and is responsible for the entire university communication infrastructure. It operates their central server and services and is thus the university's data center . As an interdisciplinary center, it also supports the faculties in handling research and teaching tasks in all IT-related areas.

Wolfgang E. Nagel has been director of the ZIH since 2005, he is also the holder of the professorship for computer architecture at the Computer Science Faculty of the TU Dresden and scientific coordinator of the Big Data Competence Center in Dresden / Leipzig (ScaDS).

tasks

As a central scientific institution, the ZIH performs data communication and information processing services for research , teaching and administration as well as other central institutions. It carries out its own research and development work to support these tasks. In addition, as an interdisciplinary center, the ZIH supports the faculties in all IT-relevant areas. As a competence center for High Performance Computing (HPC) with access for scientists from all over Saxony, the ZIH is responsible for supporting high-performance computing regionally, nationally and in international cooperation. In addition to its research program, the ZIH is involved in university teaching and, in addition to various lectures, offers further education and information events throughout the year.

structure

In addition to management and administration, the ZIH is divided into the units

history

Computing technology in the GDR

Magnetic drum storage of the D4a by Nikolaus Joachim Lehmann

During the early fifties in individual institutes of the TU Darmstadt (Alwin Walther), the Max Planck Institute for Physics and Astrophysics in Göttingen (Heinz Billing and Ludwig Biermann), the TH Dresden (Nikolaus Joachim Lehmann) and the TU Munich (Hans Piloty and Robert Sauer) experimented with self-built calculating machines, several universities began planning to acquire industrially manufactured calculating systems as early as the middle of the decade.

At the beginning of the sixties, the establishment of the university computer centers began in the GDR with the delivery of computer technology to the universities. From the second half of the 1960s, special fields of study for data processing were set up in the mathematics and electrical engineering faculties and sections. B. under terms such as computing technology, computing electronics, information processing or cybernetics.

Research and teaching in computer technology and information processing were just as much a part of the tasks of the computer centers as the planning of further development and equipment, computer operation, and support and advice for users on software and general and scientific advice. Training and education of IT specialists also proved to be essential, as these were practically non-existent at the time.

The University Computer Center (URZ) of the TU Dresden was founded in 1968.

Association with engineering college (1986)

On October 4, 1986, the Dresden Engineering College was merged with the Technical University of Dresden in order to concentrate the training of computer scientists in Dresden at one location. The two information processing sections of the two participating universities of the same name were transferred to a newly formed IT center for higher education with Horst Tzschoppe as director at the helm. With 400 to 500 enrolled direct and distance students per year, this center was the largest academic training facility for computer scientists in the GDR. The computer science faculty of the TU Dresden, which emerged from this at the end of 1990, used the premises until 2006 when it moved to the new building on Nöthnitzer Strasse.

Procurement of high-performance computers

There was a consensus between the SMWK and the Saxon data center managers that computers of different architectures, different manufacturers, different areas of application and different performance should be procured and installed at the TU Dresden, Universität Leipzig and TU Chemnitz locations . In addition to the state high-performance computer in Dresden, Chemnitz University of Technology has focused more on clusters, and Leipzig University on parallel computers. All scientists at the Saxon universities can use these computers if the specifics and performance requirements of their research tasks go beyond the local possibilities. When accessing the high-performance computers, they are supported by their own data center and the on-site competence teams. A “Scientific Computing” competence network is to be formed in Saxony through increased cooperation between the individual competence teams.

Foundation of the ZIH (2005)

In 2005 the University Computing Center (URZ) was merged with the Center for High Performance Computing (ZHR) to form the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH). The foreword of the 2005 annual report on cooperative IT supply states:

"Dr. Heinke, the long-standing head of our university data center (URZ), retired in March 2005 and thus also left the service of the Technical University of Dresden. [...] With his departure - after intensive discussion in the committees - under the new leadership of Prof. Dr. Nagel the university computing center was amicably merged with the Center for High Performance Computing (ZHR) and now operates under the name Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH). "

Closure of the faculty computer center (2008)

The former Faculty Computer Center (FRZ) provided centralized and distributed IT services for research, teaching and studies at the Faculty of Computer Science. It operated the relevant servers (e.g. mail, WWW, login, database, media, file and backup servers) and was responsible for the function of the local data network and its connection to the TU campus network Dresden responsible. The FRZ was closed on October 1, 2008. The services and employees were taken over by the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH).

Foundation of the Lehmann Center (2010)

In May 2010, the Lehmann Center of the TU Dresden was founded as a roof for all facilities and institutes in the field of computer science. As the central scientific institution of the TU Dresden, the Lehmann Center is to be integrated into the structure of the Technical University of Dresden as a center for "Integrated Engineering" and a core component of the DRESDEN concept . In summary:

  • Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH)
  • ResUbic Lab Dresden
  • Institute for Scientific Computing (IWR)
  • Center for virtual mechanical engineering (ZVM)
  • Media center (MZ)
  • Center for Advanced Modeling (CAM)

With this center - associated with the name of Nikolaus Joachim Lehmann , a highly esteemed mathematician and computer scientist who worked all his life at the Technical University of Dresden and its immediate predecessor, the Technical University of Dresden - around 250 computer scientists will be under one roof brought.

Laying of the foundation stone for the data center of the Lehmann Center (2013)

At the same time as the installation of the second stage for the new high-performance computer / storage complex II (HRSK II), the Lehmann Center of the TU Dresden, founded in May 2010, received a data center (LZR). The laying of the foundation stone on Nöthnitzer Strasse took place on May 21, 2013 in the presence of the Saxon State Minister for Finance, Professor Dr. Georg Unland , instead. At the end of 2014, the new supercomputer of the TU Dresden, designed and operated by the Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing (ZIH), moved into this new building. With its combination of computer and storage system, it is integrated into the IT concept and future concept of the TU Dresden as a key technology for research in the Free State and an important part of DRESDEN-concept . In addition to the HRSK II, the computer center will house the central IT systems of the TU Dresden and be open to additional basic IT services for other Saxon research institutions. The data of the university clinic will also be saved and processed here after completion. The infrastructure therefore meets the highest security and availability requirements. Particularly noteworthy is the very high energy efficiency, which is also promoted by the fact that the computer waste heat can be reused for heating the building.

High performance computing

With the high-performance computer / storage complex (HRSK) - a specially compiled computer architecture, adapted to the current needs of research - a cornerstone was laid in 2005 for the close cooperation between data-intensive computing and high-performance computing. Computer technology is used primarily for research on topics such as data analytics, grid computing , programming methods, optimization methods and algorithms in mathematics, and for the description of biological processes.

With the expansion of the high-performance computer / storage complex (HRSK-II, 2015) - Bull HPC-Cluster Taurus - the Saxon scientists of all sexes have a supercomputer with around 43,000 CPU cores and a peak performance of around 1.6 quadrillion computing operations per second (1 , 6  PFlops ) are available. A large number of application programs are available to all users on this and the SGI UV2000 Venus . Of course, software developed in-house can be translated and processed.

Bull HPC cluster (Taurus)

  • For highly parallel HPC applications
  • approx. 6400 cores Intel Sandy Bridge and Westmere as well as 34000 cores Intel Haswell with different main memory configurations
  • Bullx Linux, Slurm batch system
  • Peak performance of around 1.6 PFlops

SGI UV 2000 (Venus)

  • For memory-intensive computing
  • 512 cores Intel E5-4650L (Sandy Bridge) 2.6 GHz
  • 8 TB shared main memory
  • 79 TB disk space in the SAN
  • SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11, batch system LSF
  • 10.6 TFlops of peak performance

building

Awards

2014

  • TU Dresden honored for new data center construction

2013

  • Saxony's best IT specialist completed training at the ZIH
  • Nomination as a Gordon Bell Award finalist

2012

  • Awarded as a CUDA Center of Excellence

2009

  • Saxony's best IT specialist completed her training at the ZIH

2008

  • Winner of the Cluster Challenge at the Supercomputing Conference (joint team with Indiana University)

2007

  • 1st place "Bandwidth Competition" in Reno, NV, USA, 2007

Memberships

Remarks

  1. ↑ For example, the ZIH developed the BenchIT software to compare the performance of different computer systems, especially those used in high-performance computing.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Official website of the ZIH
  2. ^ Structure of the ZIH, official website
  3. ^ History of the cooperation between the computer centers in research and teaching , Wilhelm Held (Ed.), February 2009, p. 8
  4. ^ History of the cooperation between the computer centers in research and teaching , Wilhelm Held (Ed.), February 2009, p. 59
  5. ↑ a b History of the cooperation between the computer centers in research and teaching , Wilhelm Held (Ed.), February 2009, p. 49
  6. ^ History of the cooperation between the computer centers in research and teaching , Wilhelm Held (Ed.), February 2009, p. 39
  7. ^ Announcement on the 30th anniversary of the founding of the URZ
  8. ^ History of the cooperation between the computer centers in research and teaching , Wilhelm Held (Ed.), February 2009, p. 214
  9. ^ The former faculty computer center, faculty of computer science at TUD
  10. ↑ a b c Laying of the foundation stone for the computing center of the Lehmann Center. Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing, accessed March 6, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Andreas Stiller: Dresden makes steam: New petaflops computer at the TU Dresden. In: c't 13/2005. May 29, 2015, p. 16 , accessed March 6, 2017 .
  12. ↑ HPC systems. Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing, accessed March 6, 2017 .
  13. ↑ TU Dresden awarded for new data center construction. Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing, March 27, 2014, accessed March 6, 2017 .
  14. ↑ Training as an IT specialist. Center for Information Services and High Performance Computing, accessed on September 11, 2019 .
  15. ↑ ZIH is a Gordon Bell Award finalist. In: ZIH-Info No. 78, November 2013. Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing, accessed on March 6, 2017 .
  16. ↑ Dresden trumps with accelerator technology , press release from TU Dresden, HZDR and MPI-CBG from March 1, 2012, accessed on March 26, 2015
  17. ↑ And the winner is: The “ClusterMeisters” team. In: ZIH-Info No. 30, December 2008 / January 2009. Center for Information Services and High-Performance Computing, accessed on March 6, 2017 .
  18. ↑ GA HPC portal - knowledge and technology transfer. In: www.gauss-allianz.de. Retrieved June 10, 2016 .

Web links

Commons : Center for information services and high-performance computing  - collection of images, videos and audio files