OCF heads for the stars

Integrator installs a server and storage cluster at Durham University which allows researchers to explore the universe

Data management and storage integrator OCF has installed a server and storage cluster at Durham University that allows its researchers to simulate the universe and galaxies.

The device, built using IBM hardware such as the iDataplex server, has been nicknamed the Cosmology machine and is in its fourth generation – shortened to COSMA4.

Eventually researchers will be able to simulate finer components of the universe such as stars and even planets.

The server and storage cluster provides 620TB of storage and is 20 times faster than its previous incumbent, COSMA3, and a whopping 50 times faster than COSMA2, which has been decommissioned.

It comprises 220 IBM iDataPlex servers, eight IBM DS3500 storage devices, IBM’s General Parallel File System to pool storage hardware and an IBM tape library.

Dr Lydia Heck, senior computer manager for the department of physics at Durham University, said: “Our machine room has an upper limit on energy consumption so we could not just go out and buy a loose federation of machines. It was essential we procured a powerful, but well-balanced, energy-efficient machine.

“The hardware and software integration from OCF was very smooth. The team is very knowledgeable and has provided four days of invaluable and intensive training on the system,” she said.

Professor Carlos Frenk, director of the Institute for Computational Cosmology at Durham University, said: “Brain power alone is not enough to calculate the complex algorithms. However, our new server and storage cluster does enable us to experiment with questions such as how gravity operates and how the universe expands."