INASMET-Tecnalia and casting processes simulation

The slides, distributed by INASMET tecnalia show the centre's works on simulation. As I explained INASMET is soon going to be Tecnalia. They are a relevant Materials research centre, so I assume simulation is quite important. However it is unknown whether they own a parallel computer.

These slides were found here, a blog about this topic.

Casting simulation

View more presentations from Eva Anglada.

Labein-Tecnalia goes away to compute

Labein Tecnalia, very soon Tecnalia, created not long ago NANOC the centre for Nanomaterials Applications in construction. Here they work with CSIC the Spanish National Research Council.

It is very interesting that these guys are working on high performance materials for construction. However they need to use other people's high performance computing resources to do so.

Having a look at CESGA's annual report, these partners have been calculating on the Galician centre's resources for the 2007-2009 period and I believe that possible during 2010 as well.

Some quick numbers:

-They used 673,861 cpu hours (2007-2009 period)
-Assuming their codes used around 128 cpus (lets say SIESTA code, but I do not know them so I have to pick one :) )
-This means 219 days in 3 years or 73 days per year.

Now, my opinion: I do not know these guys, but I wonder, having as we have resources here and probably sometimes misused, and assuming the Tecnalia and the local universities work together in certain projects: why dont they finally team up to excel in the hardware/software management (at least) ?

Home Grown Software (Part I - Aircrafts)

Two Basque companies developing software:

"A software to improve the design of aircraft wings"

"TECNALIA and AERNNOVA are working together on the ICARO project to develop MDO (Multidisciplinary Optimisation) software aimed at optimising the design of aircraft wings and thus reduce the main design variables, such as manufacturing costs and weight."


Further Info:
http://www.sciencecentric.com/news/article.php?q=09043008-a-software-improve-the-design-aircraft-wings

Where Can I Host An HPC Center ? (Part I)

Hosting such an infrastructure requires lots of space and "think big". Not only the machine but all the infrastructure should be built upon "Lego pieces" that can really scale - and now more than ever help to build something green. Pharaonic designs result into insane bills.

The Safest Hosting Facility Already Built

Today we have known that hosting provider 1and1 is going to build its next datacenter in Hanau Germany, using the space left behind by an old Nuclear Power Plant that was never used before.

In the basque region we got the old Nuclear Power Plant of Lemóniz, a completely built Nuclear Power Plant: it has never been used before so there is no nuclear rubbish inside it. According to the information available on the Wikipedia (spanish version) the building is empty as the machines inside were sold as they were never used.

The safest ready to use hosting facility is in our hand.

What about the power? Can it be green?

Two approaches could be used; in both cases the Basque has enough industrial power to cope with a good solution.

First: This time from Google - the use of shipping containers seems to be power-efficient:


...cooling goes directly through the container -between other ideas proposed by Google like fan controlling-:



...rather than hand-made workarounds that many datacenters have manually implemented:

Second: Lemoniz is by the sea:



... And Tecnalia and Iberdrola two Basque companies have already started a project to develop a wave energy project. Here is a picture of the prototype already installed in Pasajes:

We could not have something better, already built, safer, close to the sea and what is more making use of green energy produced by means of our own developed technology. Other minds already provided solutions so let´s mix & use them.

Update 7th January 2009
The local government has launched BIMEP (Biscay Marine Energy Platform) last 20th of November. The infrastructure is close to Lemoniz as well. Further information in English.

An article published by El Mundo says that the Power Plant belongs to Iberdrola, who does not want much publicity around Lemoniz since it has a high political meaning. Further surfing reveals that Iberdrola has worked and works on HPC-Energy projects.

Past To Understand The Present (Part I)

Sometimes it is good to have a look back, see those old projects that failed and make the following question: are they useful now?

This is the case of the Basque Supercomputing Center. Created as a laboratory of Labein and located at the Zamudio Technology Park during the first 90s hosted a CONVEX C-220 like this:

Some people say that the machine -fully financed with public money from the Basque Region Government- was misused. The government offered the utility to the University of the Basque Country, a public institution which could not afford the electricity bill. The machine was turned off and the department dissolved. The money was invested in more profitable research and industrial activities making use of cheaper and more affordable machines. It is a must to remember that the Basque and Spain were hit by an important crisis then, and that every bit of money to invest was crucial -as it is coming nowadays at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center were it is uncertain that the Spanish Government will be able to invest 12m€ witin next two years.

But if we have a look at the European HPC landscape or even the international we can find good reasons to recreate this laboratory at the Basque Country and join the separate efforts that I2Basque, the Universities and other research institutions are making in the Basque region. We do not need oversized compute power but we can find a resonable solution to pay the electricity bill.