Fujitsu and A*STAR's IHPC Enter Collaborative R&D Partnership To Usher in Era of Petascale Computing in Singapore

Tokyo and Singapore, January 19, 2010

Fujitsu and the Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR)'s Institute of High Performance Computing (IHPC) announced today an R&D partnership to jointly develop advanced applications technologies for the next generation of scientific computing known as petascale computing.

Petascale computing, using sophisticated supercomputers able to undertake a quadrillion (10¹⁵) calculations per second, will provide unprecedented computing capability to solve highly complex and challenging scientific and engineering problems. To enable the effective use of the immense compute power of petascale supercomputers, a new set of compatible software applications will need to be built.

A joint team of 20 IHPC and Fujitsu researchers will develop scalable algorithms for petascale computing in the areas of computational fluid dynamics and materials science. To do so, the team will harness the compute power of Fujitsu supercomputer system comprising a cluster of Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX900 blade servers with a peak performance of over 35 teraflops⁽¹⁾ (TFlops) and 91.8% efficiency⁽²⁾ with LINPACK⁽³⁾ program . This is the first installation of a Fujitsu PRIMERGY BX900-based supercomputer outside of Japan. This system, housed at A*STAR's Computational Resource Centre (A*CRC) at Fusionopolis, will be amongst the top tier of supercomputer sites in the world and the most powerful in Southeast Asia.

The R&D in petascale computing applications will enable a very high degree of fidelity and accuracy, in the study of highly complex real and engineering systems. This know-how will lead to innovative and cutting-edge solutions for advanced applications in diverse areas such as chemicals to infocommunications and electronics. It can also address a wider range of large-scale scenarios from weather modeling to studies on infectious diseases.

Said Mr. Lim Chuan Poh, Chairman, A*STAR: "I am delighted to welcome Fujitsu into the research community at Fusionopolis and to A*STAR. This partnership will enable both parties to develop further capabilities to drive advances in high-performance computing. Over the years, A*STAR and Fujitsu have enjoyed close collaborations on R&D in the physical sciences, and I look forward to working with Fujitsu to expand these to also include the biomedical sciences. I am confident that such strategic partnerships will push the frontiers of research, enhance Fujitsu's ability to stay relevant and competitive, and also enable Singapore to harness innovation for the benefit of key industry sectors."

Said Dr. Raj Thampuran, Executive Director, IHPC: "Petascale computing is the new frontier in high-performance computing and will open avenues to solve complex problems in the physical and life sciences, as well as engineering. IHPC's expertise in computational science and engineering complements Fujitsu's skills in developing new architectures. We are privileged to partner with Fujitsu in this exciting endeavour."

Mr. Koichi Hironishi, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President, Fujitsu Limited, added: "Fujitsu is honored to collaborate with A*STAR and to contribute to the development of Singapore as the R&D hub of the region. We look forward to building a long-term collaboration to realize the potential of petascale computing and beyond in Singapore. The deployment of this supercomputer is an important first step."

"Since we started operations in Singapore, we have positioned the country as the showcase for the rest of Asia by introducing the best IT solutions and practices from our global experience to local customers and industry partners. This collaboration is the latest milestone in a series of contributions towards Singapore's continued economic success, and demonstrates our ability to value-add to the nation through strategic partnerships with industry prime movers such as A*STAR," added Mr. Masaki Kajiyama, President of Singapore operations at Fujitsu Asia.

IHPC-Fujitsu Collaboration Factsheet

High performance computing at IHPC
IHPC is constantly on the pulse of the latest developments in computational methodologies for applications in a diverse spectrum of industries. Leveraging on a breadth of computational expertise, IHPC is well-placed to undertake R&D in a myriad of exciting technologies for future applications, i.e. petascale computing applications. IHPC is therefore in a unique position to develop capabilities and platforms to facilitate the development of new applications for the industry.

Fujitsu's supercomputer development
Fujitsu has raised the bar for technology in the area of high-performance computing over the past 30 years, and continues to be a leader in the field. The company is currently participating in the Next-Generation Supercomputer Project led by Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT).

Drawing on the knowledge and wide range of products and services it has acquired through these and other projects, Fujitsu will continue to provide HPC solutions to meet the needs of its customers.

Collaborative Projects
Through collaborative projects, both parties would explore the scaling up of algorithms for Petascale computing system and accelerate the development of massively parallel applications to solve extremely challenging problems in science and engineering.

1. Lattice Boltzmann Large-scale Simulations of Multi-phase / Multi-component Flows
   
   The Lattice Boltzmann Method (LBM) is a simulation technique that is particularly useful in the modeling of fluids with many phases and components. Fluid dynamics typically involve microscopic particles, giving rise to complexities in calculations that traditional methods cannot fully provide solutions to. LBM, based on microscopic particle models and kinetic equations, provides the alternate numerical treatment required to solve these problems.
   
   IHPC has developed a parallelized LBM code and has successfully implemented it in for various fluid dynamics applications such as drop dynamics, flow instability, impinging flow, bubble column, vortex ring dynamics and fluid structure interaction. The LBM method will be further improved for computational efficacy for large scale simulations.
   
   With the completion of this study, it would provide the industry with the possibility of undertaking complex simulations without the need for excess computational resources - hence saving overhead costs and time.
2. Calculations for Adhesion Studies using Quantum Espresso, an Open-sourced Software
   
   Interfacial behaviour of different materials is a key aspect in the functional property of components, particularly in the electronics sector. With the slew of new materials being developed for this sector, studies in adhesion between layers have increasingly become a key area for R&D. For example, graphene - a single layer of graphite - which has the potential to replace silicon in the next generation of microchips, is a good candidate material to evaluate its adhesive properties with different substrates. In the proposed work, we would first look at adhesion of such materials to a metal substrate, study the addition of nanoparticles to the surface and lastly look at the catalytic properties of nanoparticles. The need for large scale computing is imperative when performing such complex calculations where the focus will be to develop specific algorithms to accurately predict such behaviour.
   
   This will enable engineers to develop application-specific products in a much shorter and cost effective manner.