Surrey scales-up and speeds-up research with supercomputer

The HPCC will enable the University of Surrey to ‘scale-up’ experiments; complete more complex research on larger sets of data to ensure greater accuracy and repeatability of results.

Financial analysis company CDO2 will be one of the first commercial companies to make use of the HPCC. CD02 has partnered with the University of Surrey to work on a three year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) aimed at improving CDO2’s pricing and risk analysis technology. CDO2 develops this technology for banks, hedge funds and investment firms that are involved in trading structured credit products, specifically collateralised debt obligations (CDOs).

“We are gaining leading-edge server and storage capability with access to the appropriate expertise for these systems,” said Dr Lee Gillam, research fellow, University of Surrey. “The HPCC technology will enable us to undertake further and deeper scientific and business-oriented research, benefiting real-world applications.”

The solution’s entire design, install and maintenance is provided by OCF, the UK’s premier High Performance Computing integrator.

According to Mr Gary Dear, Computing Support Manager at Surrey, “We are working closely with OCF and IBM to ensure a seamless integration technology with our existing infrastructure”.

The HPCC system contains IBM’s HS21 high-density blade servers featuring Intel Core 2 Duo architecture; IBM System Storage DS4500 and IBM System Storage DS4000 providing terascale storage capability. Myrinet’s Myricom switching technology provides low-latency connectivity between blades.

“The HPCC using IBM technology will support the University’s current research whilst providing adequate server power and storage capability for future research, research-led teaching and commercial projects,” said Julian Fielden, Managing Director, OCF plc.

“The investment in this system will strengthen efforts in a number of directions and complements the department’s investment into Access Grid technologies,” says Head of the Department of Computing Professor Steve Schneider. “The computational and collaborative capabilities will assist in advancements in existing activities and provide for new opportunities.”