With Silicon Graphics, Roshydromet Improves Accuracy and Speed of Weather Forecasts to Save Lives and Property
10 February 2009 - 1:05AM
PR Newswire (US)
Russia's National Weather Service Boosts Computing Power by 10,000
Times to Model Weather and Climate in Greater Detail SUNNYVALE,
Calif., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Around the world, efforts
are intensifying to provide early and accurate warning of severe
weather systems. In Russia, meteorologists are pursuing this
potentially life-saving goal with world-class computing and storage
solutions from Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) (NASDAQ:SGIC). Russia's
Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring
(Roshydromet) after a thorough evaluation and rigorous procurement
procedure has deployed Silicon Graphics solutions to rapidly
develop detailed models that enable more precise weather forecasts.
The systems operate at 27 trillion operations per second, providing
10,000 times the computational power of Roshydromet's previous Cray
supercomputer. This enhanced capability has expanded both the
forecast duration and the accuracy of these critical forecasts. One
system is equipped with 6.6 trillion bytes (TB) of globally shared
memory, so Russian meteorologists can process much larger models
and produce more accurate forecasts. Installed in December, the new
systems will help Roshydromet minimize the losses to life and
property caused by severe weather. The Federal Service also expects
to: -- Generate forecasts with much better accuracy and more
details, as compared to the earlier forecasts. -- Extend the
forecast duration from 5-7 days previously to 7-10 days. -- Offer a
new variety of specialized weather forecasts to serve the needs of
the growing economy of the Russian Federation. This is possible,
because the new Silicon Graphics solution will allow Roshydromet
to: -- Generate global weather models with resolution of 40
kilometers (km) or better - nearly 4 times more detailed than
previous models. -- Reach the resolution of 15 kilometer for some
regions and eventually produce forecasts for major cities that are
accurate down to a 1.5-3 kilometer, enabling, for instance,
specific districts within Moscow to receive their own forecasts.
With Russia covering more than one-eighth of the planet's land
area, forecasting weather nationwide presents a uniquely difficult
challenge. Creating weather and climate models at a resolution of
just 40 km requires massive compute resources and fast access to
data. Yet strict power limitations at Roshydromet's computer center
meant that only the most energy-efficient solutions could be
considered. "We map the globe in our models, with denser resolution
from the Baltic Sea to the Bering Strait, Roshydromet forecasts
weather in areas that include mountain ranges, steppes, forests and
near desert," said Vladimir Antsypovitch, director, Main Computer
Center at Roshydromet. "With more detailed weather models, we can
spare lives and communities from devastating weather threats. As
the result of the selection procedure has shown, Silicon Graphics
was the only vendor capable of delivering the performance,
flexibility and reliability our applications require, along with
the energy efficiency we needed to stay within our power
constraints." "As weather systems grow more severe, developing and
disseminating an accurate forecast quickly has become an economic
and public safety imperative for governments around the world,"
said Dr. Deepak Thakkar, director of marketing at Silicon Graphics.
"With powerful, shared-memory solutions from Silicon Graphics,
Roshydromet can rise to the challenge of providing 48-hour
forecasts for the largest country in the world while meeting its
very specific power constraints." "Forecasting severe weather for
large, diverse geographies like Russia plays a vital role in a
proactive public safety strategy. Intel is proud to power the
energy-smart server solutions from SGI(R) that make this possible
for Roshydromet," said Richard Dracott, Intel's General Manager of
High Performance Computing. "The Intel Itanium(R) and Xeon(R)
processors used in the SGI systems provide the scalability,
reliability, and energy-efficient performance for these
applications that are immense both in their scope and in their
impact on people's lives." Roshydromet's Compute and Storage
Solution: -- An 1,664-core SGI(R) Altix(R) 4700 system with 6.6TB
of globally shared memory running SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise Server
10. -- A 1,408-core SGI(R) Altix(R) ICE system powered by 352
Intel(R) Xeon(R) processors and equipped with 2.8TB of memory and
SUSE(R) Linux Enterprise. -- 180TB of SGI(R) RAID storage (a 60TB
SGI(R) InfiniteStorage 4000 system and a 120TB SGI(R)
InfiniteStorage 10000 array), with a Quantum tape library and Fibre
Channel Storage Area Network utilizing SGI(R) InfiniteStorage
Shared Filesystem CXFS(TM) and SGI(R) InfiniteStorage Data
Migration Facility software for seamless, transparent data transfer
and hierarchical management. Performance and Energy Efficiency: --
Silicon Graphics won the procurement at Roshydromet, because the
Altix family's unique architecture allows scientists to optimize
their Global Spectral Model (GSM) atmospheric codes using "fat
notes" driven by 128 or 256 processors, thus dramatically
shortening their time to solution. Silicon Graphics storage with
CXFS also means users can access data from any client. -- An
inventive water-cooling solution developed by Silicon Graphics
allows Roshydromet to keep energy consumption and costs to a
minimum during the summer; in winter, the facility will utilize the
cold outdoor weather to keep data center temperatures down. Silicon
Graphics, Inc. Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) (NASDAQ:SGIC), is a
leader in high-performance computing. SGI delivers a complete range
of high-performance server and storage solutions along with
industry-leading professional services and support that enable its
customers to overcome the challenges of complex data-intensive
workflows and accelerate breakthrough discoveries, innovation and
information transformation. SGI solutions help customers solve
their computing challenges whether it's enhancing the quality of
life through drug research, designing and manufacturing safer and
more efficient cars and airplanes, studying global climate,
providing technologies for homeland security and defense, or
helping enterprises manage large data. With offices worldwide, the
company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, and can be found
on the Web at http://www.sgi.com/. (C) 2009 SGI. All rights
reserved. SGI, the SGI cube, Altix and the SGI logo are registered
trademarks of SGI in the United States and/or other countries
worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in
several countries. Intel, Xeon and Itanium are trademarks or
registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in
the United States and other countries. All other trademarks
mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners. MEDIA
CONTACT Marla Robinson 256.773.2371 SGI PR HOTLINE 408-524-2810
DATASOURCE: Silicon Graphics, Inc. CONTACT: Media, Marla Robinson
of Silicon Graphics, Inc., +1-256-773-2371, , or SGI PR HOTLINE,
+1-408-524-2810 Web Site: http://www.sgi.com/
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