Asus improves the efficiency of its servers in scientific distributed computing applications

ASUS has provided more than 500 RS904A-E6 / PS4 servers to complete MEGWARE's HPC MOGON cluster project for the German university Johannes Gutenberg Mainz, a center known for its advanced research projects. The new cluster has reached number 81 on the world list of the 500 supercomputers in June 2012 and is based on the ASUS RS904A-E6 / PS4 model, which has four AMD Opteron ™ 6272 Interlagos processors at 2.1GHz, up to 64 cores per node, InfiniBand ™ QDR at 40Gb / s and redundant power supplies 1620W 80 PLUS Platinum. Thanks to this architecture, the Mainz supercomputer achieves 204.99TFLOPS of performance in the Linpack benchmark .

Partnership with MEGWARE

MEGWARE Computer Vertrieb und Service GmbH is a European HPC service provider based in Germany. The company specializes in custom-built research and development, production, consulting and distribution systems and services. Already last June, the symbiosis between ASUS and MEGWARE resulted in the Vienna Scientific Cluster project, which made its debut at number 56 on the world list of 500 supercomputers.

Tangible results for Johannes Gutenberg Mainz University

Known for its research in areas such as mathematics, medicine, geosciences, and mechanical engineering, Johannes Gutenberg Mainz University contacted MEGWARE to design an HPC cluster that would enhance its computing capabilities. The university requested as conditions for the new cluster the best performance, reliability and energy efficiency.

Working with ASUS, MEGWARE was able to design a very powerful, inexpensive, and cost-effective HPC cluster. Installed last June, the HPC MOGON cluster is currently ranked 81 on the global list of 500 supercomputers. With 33, 792 cores capable of 204.99TFLOPS, it is the eighth-largest supercomputer in Germany.

Hardware Features

The HPC MOGON cluster employs over 500 ASUS RS904A-E6 / PS4 servers with InfiniBand ™ QDR high-speed interconnect (up to 40Gbps) and minimal latency. The ASUS RS904A-E6 / PS4 offer a Quad-GPU design with extreme compute density, quad-channel memory and quad LAN. Despite its performance and thanks to the 1620W 80 PLUS Platinum power supplies, this model maintains 94% energy efficiency, ensuring stable, long-lasting and efficient operation.

“ The main objective of MEGWARE is to offer high quality HPC solutions. The ASUS solution used is specially designed for high performance applications, meets all technical specifications and represents the most cost-effective and economical option. ”

Doerte Grapow from the MEGWARE HPC sales team.

“ Performance and reliability were two of the essentials when deciding on ASUS server hardware. The AUS solution offers excellent performance and the cooperation between the engineers from both companies has been brilliant. ”

Peter Grossoehme, MEGWARE HPC engineer.