Qlogic SilverStorm 9080 Supplementary Manual

Brand: Qlogic

Model: SilverStorm 9080

Type: Supplementary Manual

C A S E S T U D Y

CD-adapco

QLogic InﬁniPath

Adapters

Yield Supercomputing Results

from Affordable Linux Clusters

Challenge

Optimize the performance of an affordable Linux

cluster for a computational ﬂuid dynamics (CFD)

application initially designed for costly supercomputing

environments

Solution

30 QLogic

InﬁniPath QLE7140 PCI Express adapters

interconnect through a SilverStorm (SilverStorm

Technologies

™

acquired November 2006 by QLogic

Corporation) 9080 multiprotocol fabric director switch to

30 IBM

System e326 compute nodes in an IBM System

Cluster 1350 running the Linux operating system. Each

node is powered by two dual-core 2.4 GHz AMD Opteron

processors, each with 2GB of memory per core

Result

Based on lab tests, the QLogic InﬁniPath inter-node links

signiﬁcantly cut the execution time of the CFD application

—approaching supercomputing performance levels

without a supercomputing price tag

High-performance computing is changing the world of high-end auto racing

thanks to CD-adapco, one of the world’s leading computational ﬂuid dynamics

(CFD) software companies. A signiﬁcant percentage of the cars in the FIA

Formula One Driver’s World Championship are designed with the aid of the

company’s STAR-CD modeling software—including the winners in 2005 and

2006. In addition to meeting the exacting demands of elite race car design,

STAR-CD has become the modeling software of choice for industries as diverse

as automotive, aerospace and defense, oil and gas production, chemicals,

marine design, and electric power generation.

According to Steven Feldman, director of product development and IT at CD-

adapco, the company is also gaining traction in other industries, thanks to

new economical ways to host its compute-intensive modeling applications.

“CFD software, which simulates everything from environmental conditions

to material compositions, has traditionally required expensive UNIX

-based

supercomputers. But we can now attain comparable performance on

inexpensive distributed memory clusters made up of Intel

architecture–based

servers running Linux,” he said.

In addition to CFD software, CD-adapco provides consulting services to

customers, helping them architect their clusters for the optimal cost and

performance. “Anything we can do to speed up the underlying infrastructure

makes our software more attractive and that, of course, can boost revenue for

our company.”

CD-adapco kicks the QLogic tires

As part of their evaluation of new hardware coming onto the market, Feldman

and his colleagues were looking for ways to increase the speed of inter-node

links. Servers had become so fast that the communications links were limiting

cluster performance. Estimates by the team showed that new InﬁniPath

QLE7140 PCI Express cards from QLogic had the potential to signiﬁcantly

increase the performance of a cluster. By achieving 10X-MR, InﬁniPath

delivers over 10 times more messages per second than any other cluster

interconnect.

“QLogic InﬁniPath adapters allow compute-intensive applications to achieve

high performance on affordable server clusters.”

— Steven Feldman, director of product development

and IT, CD-adapco

Corporate Headquarters QLogic Corporation 26650 Aliso Viejo Parkway Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 949.389.6000 www.qlogic.com

Europe Headquarters QLogic (UK) LTD. Surrey Technology Centre 40 Occam Road Guildford Surrey GU2 7YG UK +44 (0)1483 295825

C A S E S T U D Y

Increasing cluster throughput would allow customers to run more

detailed models or simply get more modeling runs completed in less

time. The result, said Feldman, could be very signiﬁcant for CD-adapco

customers, because some simulations take weeks to complete. The

QLogic interconnects could cut this time down to days. Not only would

this allow projects to be completed faster—more simulations could be

performed simultaneously, increasing the capabilities of the STAR-CD

application in clustered environments.

To verify their performance expectations and create sizing data for

customers to use, Feldman’s team conﬁgured a test cluster using

the new QLogic InﬁniBand adapters connected through a SilverStorm

9080 multiprotocol fabric director. A 30-node test cluster was built

using IBM e326 servers running Linux. Each node has two dual-core

64-bit 2.4 GHz AMD Opteron processors, each with 2GB of memory

per core. A 6TB RAID storage system is connected to all the nodes in

the cluster through a separate GigE network.

Looking under the hood, QLogic InﬁniPath adapters rev up

the test cluster

To measure performance, the team ran an aerodynamics automobile

model on an increasingly larger set of compute nodes. Said Feldman,

“The speed of the analysis continued to increase, indicating excellent

scalability beyond what has been seen in other clusters,” Feldman

said. “As we add nodes to clusters using other interconnects, the

inter-node links can become bottlenecks. But with the performance

of the QLogic interconnects, our experience shows that cluster

performance can scale linearly as we add nodes.”

Feldman attributes the improved cluster scalability to higher bandwidth

of the QLogic interconnects combined with their extremely low ping

pong and random ring latency. “Ping pong latency, which measures

communication between two nodes, was 1.6 microseconds lower

than other InﬁniBand adapters. As for random ring communication—

which is measured between many nodes in a cluster—the latency

was an extremely low 1.29 microseconds.”

The new cluster zooms off to create new opportunities

According to Feldman, the performance of the QLogic-based cluster

approaches supercomputing levels at a very attractive price point.

“With QLogic InﬁniPath adapters, our applications become accessible

to more companies because we have dramatically reduced the cost

of the compute platform. That creates new opportunities for our

company,” he said. “Whether our customers use our CFD software

to design the fastest race cars in the world or simply need the

fastest modeling capabilities available for other products, using

QLogic adapters is critical to getting precise results with low capital

equipment costs.”

As seen in this drawing, QLogic InﬁniPath QLE7140 PCI adapters

interconnect through a SilverStorm 9080 multiprotocol fabric

director (now part of the QLogic product family) to 30 IBM

e326

compute nodes in two racks of an IBM 1350 System Cluster running

Linux. Each node has two dual-core 64- bit 2.4 GHz AMD Opteron

processors, each with 2GB of memory. A 6TB RAID storage system is

connected to the cluster over a dedicated GigE network.

CD-adapco

©2006 QLogic Corporation. all rights reserved. QLogic, the QLogic Logo, the Powered by QLogic Logo, InﬁniPath are registered trademarks or trademarks of QLogic Corporation. all other brands and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of

their respective owners. Information supplied by QLogic is believed to be accurate and reliable. QLogic Corporation assumes no responsibility for any errors in this brochure. QLogic Corporation reserves the right, without notice, to makes changes in product

design or speciﬁcations.

sN0130926-00 Rev a 11/06

Qlogic SilverStorm 9080 Supplementary Manual

Qlogic SilverStorm 9080 Supplementary Manual

Qlogic SilverStorm 9080 Supplementary Manual

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