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supercomputer to keep up . But in order to make the massive scientific leaps for which it was famous – in fields like quantum mechanics , astrophysics , photovoltaics and biological research – major obstacles stood in the way :
• Available space
• Available power
• Available budget
With the launch of its new Lonestar6 supercomputer , TACC overcame each of those obstacles , reduced its backlog and accomplished its goals with the help of GRC , along with partners , Dell Technologies , OEM Solutions and AMD .
TACC ’ s partnership with GRC
Faced with increasing power demands , the advent of advanced server and processor technologies and higher operating temperatures , TACC foresaw the limits of air-cooling early on . Largely out of necessity , it soon discovered liquid immersion cooling ’ s potential to address these challenges .
Starting with a single-rack installation in 2009 , TACC has continued stretching the boundaries of supercomputing using Austin-based GRC ’ s innovative liquid immersion cooling solutions . It has since quadrupled the deployments of ICEraQcooled supercomputing systems leading up to Lonestar6 .
Lonestar6 : TACC ’ s ‘ brightest ’ supercomputer yet
The newest in TACC ’ s Lonestar series of high-performance computing systems , Lonestar6 was deployed specifically to support Texas researchers .
Clocking in at an amazing three petaflops , it is three times as powerful as its predecessor and one of the fastest supercomputers at a US university .
Of course , where data centres are concerned , with increased performance comes greater heat production . Working closely with TACC , along with partners , Dell Technologies , OEM Solutions and AMD , GRC has evolved its single-phase immersion cooling systems to overcome the heat dilemma . Because of GRC ’ s proven performance , TACC chose to cool Lonestar6 with the latest evolution in GRC ’ s ICEraQ line of single-phase immersion cooling solutions : the ICEraQ Series 10 Quad .
Challenges
While housing a succession of acclaimed supercomputing systems , the Texas Advanced Computing Center has never been immune from the many challenges less celebrated centres face every day . Perhaps the biggest is discovering that air cooling is simply incapable of handling the kind of GPU-heavy compute loads that are in growing demand today – notably HPC , AI and AR / VR applications .
Despite its notoriety , TACC is not exempt from dealing with issues like finite space or limited funding . In the latter case , the ICEraQ Series 10 Quad helped the organisation optimise GPU processing with the allotted grant monies . TACC has faced other distinctive challenges as well , starting with triple-digit weather that is common to its region . Complicating matters even more , “ TACC is very unique in that [ it has ] a number of different cooling technologies and a number of different computing evolutions , all in one facility ,” said Brandon Moore , GRC ’ s Senior Solutions Architect . GRC ’ s liquid immersion cooling solution addressed all these concerns . Thus , for TACC , immersion cooling soon emerged as the only practical way forward .
Why GRC
GRC ’ s ICEraQ Series 10 Quad enabled TACC to triple its raw computing power within the same space and power envelope . That alone stood as an overriding reason to choose GRC . But other factors also influenced its decision .
A single ICEraQ Quad with 336 highperformance nodes now carries the bulk of the Lonestar6 compute load . More compute , less space and no infrastructure upgrades made immersion cooling the ideal solution for Lonestar6 .
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