researchers
23 May 2007
South African researchers now have the advantage of using massive computing
power in their quest for new knowledge and application. The Centre for High
Performance Computing (CHPC) is the first of its kind in South Africa.
Initiated by the Department of Science and Technology (DST), hosted by the
University of Cape Town (UCT) and managed by the Meraka Institute of the
Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), the CHPC is making
scientific 'supercomputing' a reality for South Africa.
Minister of Science and Technology, Mosibudi Mangena, officially opened the
facility in Cape Town on 22 May 2007. "The CHPC represents an important step in
the modernisation of our South African science infrastructure," he said. "I am
confident that this will ensure that we have the requisite capacity to generate
new knowledge and cement South Africa's position as an attractive destination
for science and technology endeavours."
Vice-Chancellor and Principal of UCT, Professor Njabulo S Ndebele said, "As
a leading research-led university in South Africa, UCT is proud to be involved
with this significant project that has far-reaching implications for research
that impacts local and global societies. "The facilities at the CHPC provide
impetus for researchers throughout Southern Africa to engage in a collaborative
and multidisciplinary approach to solve complex computationally intensive
problems that will make a real difference," said Johan Eksteen, Technology
Research Manager at the Meraka Institute.
The high speed computational infrastructure comprises of 160 compute nodes
(640 processors) in a clustered architecture. It is rated to have a peak
performance of around 2,5 terraflops, or in other words 2,5 million
mathematical operations every second. It is complemented by 50 terrabytes of
storage space. It compares with the performance of a few thousand standard
desktop personal computers. In order to maximise the benefit and use of this
infrastructure, the research communities in South Africa are self-assembled
into 10 special interest groups (SIGs) and the CHPC will add a significant
computational power to accelerate the research agenda of these groups. More
SIGs are currently being convened.
Some eight years ago, a collaborative High Performance Computing (HPC)
initiative among UCT scientists developed into an informal consortium of
Western Cape institutions. The importance of the technology as well as its
potential on a national level was also recognised by government and high
performance computing formed part of the national ICT Roadmap Project of the
then Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology.
In 2003, the DST and the CSIR became formally involved to drive the national
agenda and appointed an interim advisory committee involving science councils,
higher education institutions, government departments, major national projects,
industry players, vendors and international HPC centres. While the
computational platform was installed only early in 2007, the first three
projects have already commenced. These CHPC collaborative flagship projects
are:
* Climate Change, UCT with Professors Bruce Hewitson and Frank Shillington.
This project includes an extensive team of participants and encompasses two
complementary sub-projects focused on:
a) multi-model seasonal climate forecasts
b) the coupled ocean-atmosphere system
The two streams share the common application of dynamical modelling of the
components of the climate system. The seasonal forecasting stream uses multiple
models of the global and African regional climate and seeks to achieve advances
in the value of seasonal forecasts. The second stream will focus on activities
addressing research questions of atmosphere-ocean coupling around Southern
Africa.
* Cosmology, North-West University with Professor Marius Potgieter. The project
aims to construct, link and expand numerical models in order to simulate, for
the first time, the transport and acceleration of charged particles (cosmic
rays) from their creation in the Galaxy up to their arrival on Earth. The
computer will calculate the acceleration of these particles at astrophysical
shocks in supernova remnants, their propagation in the Galaxy and the transport
in our local turbulent heliosphere.
* Materials, University of Limpopo with Professor Phuti Ngoepe. High-energy
density solid-state lithium-ion batteries are increasingly used in commercial
applications. With this in mind, the main purpose of this project is to use
computational modelling methods in the enhancement of cost effectiveness,
energy and power density, charge/discharge time and the number of
charge/discharge cycles of high power rechargeable batteries.
Other typical commercial applications for the CHPC are in the
pharmaceutical, chemical and petroleum, software development, mining,
automobile and financial and commerce industries. This new facility will be the
hub for computational research support and resource supply in Africa. "The CHPC
operates within a multiple stakeholder environment and is a good example of
cross-pollination of a public-private partnership," according to Dr Happy
Sithole, Deputy Director of the CHPC. "The CHPC environment enhances the output
of research projects in many ways. In addition to facilitating the development
of on-site research laboratories, it also strengthens collaboration with
international research communities and promotes partnerships with science
councils, research initiatives and experimentalists," says Sithole.
For CHPC information, contact:
Llewellyn Jones
Cell: 082 880 7681
For DST information, contact:
Celeste Tema
Cell: 083 399 0765
Kristin Klose
Cell: 082 902 9503
For Ministry information, contact:
Nelvis Qekema
Cell: 082 571 2571
Issued by: Department of Science and Technology
23 May 2007
