C A S E S T U D Y
University of
Cambridge
Cambridge Earns Top Marks
for High Performance Super-
computing Cluster using QLogic
®
InfiniBand
™
HCAs and Switches
Challenge
Install and optimize the performance of the University’s
Linux cluster InfiniBand network in time to complete
the required LINPACK benchmark tests and meet the
deadline for the November, 2006 Top500 List.
Solution
585 QLogic InfiniPath
®
QLE7140 PCI Express host
channel adapters interconnect through a SilverStrorm
(SilverStorm Technologies
™
acquired November, 2006 by
QLogic Corporation) multi-protocol switched fabric to 585
Dell PowerEdge 1955 dual-core 3.0 GHz Xeon processor
servers. The resulting nine 65-node computational unit
cluster is capable of operating 27 TFlops.
Result
Supercomputing performance without a super-
computing price tag, helping Cambridge score the #2
spot in the UK, #7 in Europe, and #20 overall in the Top500
List of the world’s most powerful supercomputers.
Supercomputer Hits the Top 20
Ranked 20th in the November 2006 Top500 List, the high performance
supercomputing cluster at Cambridge University is one of the most powerful
supercomputers in the world. Test results by Top500.org demonstrate over 18
TFlops of supercomputing power using the LINPACK benchmark study.
http://www.top500.org/list/2006/11/100
The Cambridge system, nick-named “Darwin”, is a Linux-based HPC cluster
containing nine computational units (CU). Each CU is a pair of racks housing 65
Dell PowerEdge 1955 compute nodes which all connect to a core communications
rack. The InfiniBand interconnect consists of 585 QLogic InfiniPath QLE7140
PCI Express host channel adapters connected to nine QLogic SilverStorm 9024
InfiniBand switches at the edge and one core QLogic SilverStorm 9080 Multi-
protocol fabric director all supporting Full Bisectional Bandwidth (FBB).
On a day-to-day basis, the Cambridge supercomputer is capable of processing
over 27 trillion floating point operations per second (TFlops) which provides
the computing horsepower to simultaneously analyze anything from complex
molecular structures, to cosmology and geophysics.
Cambridge Studies QLogic
At this level, bottlenecks in the cluster interconnect simply do not make the
grade. That’s why Cambridge selected QLogic InfiniPath InfiniBand Host
Channel Adapaters (HCAs) and a QLogic SilverStorm InfiniBand switched
fabric. Known for their industry-leading performance, QLogic InfiniPath HCAs
offer the lowest latency, the highest message rate and highest effective
bandwidth of any cluster interconnect available.
QLogic SilverStorm multi-protocol switches and directors provide the
low-latency, high-bandwidth fabric through which the InfiniBand cluster
transparently accesses the storage and Ethernet network. The highly scalable
QLogic SilverStorm fabric ensures Cambridge has room to grow, while
reducing costs and complexity in the network. In addition, the system uses 1/3
“The InfiniBand network by QLogic, including HCAs and IB switches & directors
provided us the lowest latency, high bandwidth, high performance interconnect
we could achieve, all at an affordable cost. The ability for QLogic to implement the
solution so quickly enabled us to reach a prestigious # 20 on the Top500 List.”
— Paul Calleja, Director of High Performance Computing,
Cambridge University
