INDUSTRY
Scientific ResearchIntroduction

CHALLENGESThe Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC) is a centuries-old institution of higher
learning located in Córdoba, Argentina. The Universidad Nacional de Cordoba offers
undergraduate and graduate degrees in over 92 majors. In addition, as part of thenational research program, the Universidad Nacional de Cordoba is conducting leadingedge research in domains such as astronomy, chemistry, biotechnology, social sciences,statistics, physics, and engineering. UNC's Centro de Computacion de Alto Desempeno(CCAD) has acquired a new system from Supermicro, and it is part of the University's
High Performance Computing (HPC) center within (CCAD).

• Simulations were taking toolong to complete.
• Applications required theentire cluster to complete,
forcing out other simulations.

Challenges
Researchers at the UNC were reaching a limit in their research activities as the existing
HPC systems could not produce results fast enough from their various simulations. Not
only did the numerical simulations take too long to complete, but it was also necessary
to increase the resolution in the models that most research fields require to obtain more
information. Clients of the CCAD perform both basic and applied research. Currently,
the CCAD provides applications for popular independent software vendors (ISV)
products such as GROMACS, QE, LAMMPS, and OpenFOAM. In addition, a combination of© Copyright 2021 Supermicrohomegrown and ISV applications enables researchers to develop specific new
applications for their ongoing research.
Many of the applications at UNC required several days to obtain results. This was simply
too long for gaining the desired research insight. So, a new, faster cluster was required.
In addition, many applications only used 16-32 cores per run, which limited thescalability, increasing run times. However, due to performance limitations of theprevious cluster, some applications required the entire cluster, even over off peak hours
and vacation time. This overutilization required other important research projects towait.

Solution

SOLUTION
Supermicro A+ BigTwin servers
with 4 nodes per chassis.

Working with our leading local partner Multitech engineers, UNC investigated several
solutions that would enable their community of researchers to get results faster.
Ultimately UNC decided on the Supermicro A+ AS-2124BT-HTR with four dual processor
compute nodes each. UNC acquired 15 of these systems, each configured with dual
AMD EPYC™ 7532 CPUs with 32 cores, each running at 2.4 GHz. Additionally, each system
includes 128GB of RAM and a 1.92TB SSD of NVMe M.2 storage. The overall cluster also
consists of a management/head node that is also based on the AMD EPYC™ processor.
Finally, the new Supermicro servers include a PCI-E 4.0 I/O system to enable higher
throughput communication with storage and networking sub-systems.

AMD EPYC™ 7532 CPUs with 32cores each.

BENEFITS
Faster completion of HPC
simulations.
Larger scalability to reduce
simulation time.
More researchers can use thecluster concurrently.

"We are glad to see how Supermicro and AMD have a strong
momentum in the R&D and HPC areas in Argentina,"- Diego Lavalle, CEO Multitech Argentina, Supermicro local distributor.

The Supermicro BigTwin® servers contain four separate nodes, which are housed in a 2U
chassis. This novel design leads to an increased density of the CPUs per rack-unit (RU)
compared to traditional single-node systems. Furthermore, each of the nodes can be
hot-swapped, reducing overall system downtime. Power consumption is also reduced
compared to industry standard rackmount servers by sharing power supplies andcooling fans.

Image 1 - Supermicro AS-2124BT-HTR© Copyright 2021 SupermicroImage 2 - Single Node in a Multi-Node System

For fast networking between the nodes for applications requiring the computing powerof multiple servers, an NVIDIA Mellanox InfiniBand network interface card (NIC) is part ofthe solution, and the cards that are internal to each of the compute and management
servers. In addition, UNC chose a networking system that delivers up to 200Gbits persecond for demanding multi-node applications.
UNC has named this new HPC solution the Serafin cluster. Overall, Serafin contains 60
servers with 120 of the AMD EPYC™ 7532 CPUs. The overall performance of the cluster,running compute intensive benchmarks, is over 147 Teraflops. This compute cluster isrecognized as the most powerful HPC system for open research in Argentina.

Image 3 - Supermicro systems at The Universidad Nacional de Córdoba© Copyright 2021 Supermicro

“On the AMD side with our EPYC server processor, the challenge posedby the UNC led us to work with Supermicro and Multitech, on an HPC
platform that will deliver the best teraflop-per-dollar ratio in the market,
and also allow us to support the development of the scientificcommunity of Argentina and the region.”
Juan Moscoso, Regional Datacenter Sales, AMDBenefits
Researchers are now able to run larger models and get results in less time than everbefore. Many simulations can now be run with more fidelity or resolution, leading tomore accurate results. Serafin built by Supermicro can deliver 5X the performance ofthe previous HPC cluster at UNC.

SUPERMICROSupermicro is a global leader inhigh performance, green
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and innovation. We provide ourglobal customers withapplication-optimized servers
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Initial testing using a handful of applications showed that applications ran from 2X to 5X
faster than previously. This means that simulations that once took 24 hours to complete
can now deliver results in as little as four to five hours. Also, the applications will run
with more inputs and larger amounts of data due to the memory bandwidth increases
and the I/O speeds. Developers realized that scaling up a simulation was easy, andmuch faster results could be obtained by simply using the new Supermicro cluster.

"We knew we had a limited budget, and we also knew this was a one-infive-years opportunity of financial support. Supermicro and AMD
together provided us with outstanding value for the money. We bought
50% more processing power of what we originally envisioned."-Oscar Reula, PhD,CCAD HPC Center Director, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.

Summary
With the additional computing power of the Serafin cluster, all state-run scientific andtechnological organizations will be given time on the cluster. For other entities, such as
government and private companies, a simple price per core hour is available, whichallows the UNC to maintain the new cluster.

Further Resources
1. Cluster Serafin - https://ccad.unc.edu.ar/equipamiento/cluster-serafin/
2. https://www.unc.edu.ar/comunicaci%C3%B3n/con-una-nueva-supercomputadorala-unc-alcanza-el-mayor-poder-de-c%C3%B3mputo-de-argentina© Copyright 2021 Supermicro3. https://www.clarin.com/tecnologia/cordoba-inaugura-serafin-nuevasupercomputadora-homenajea-fontanarrosa_0_a2HtpBtpOc.html
4. www.supermicro.com/aplus© Copyright 2021 Supermicro