The Nationwide Renewable Vitality Laboratory (NREL) introduced it has accomplished the buildout of its Kestrel supercomputer, slated to succeed in 44 petaflops of computing energy centered on renewable power and power effectivity analysis.
Constructed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, the HPC system will ship greater than 5 occasions the computing energy of NREL’ earlier supercomputer, Eagle, and can assist the U.S. Division of Vitality (DOE) Workplace of Vitality Effectivity and Renewable Vitality (EERE).
With this summer time’s completion of the set up, Kestrel now provides 132 graphics processing unit (GPU) nodes—every internet hosting 4 Nvidia H100 GPU processors—to the two,314 present central processing unit (CPU) nodes with two Intel Sapphire Rapids processors, in accordance with NREL. The brand new GPU nodes are already in use by greater than 60 initiatives, elevating the work at EERE to new heights by enabling rising synthetic intelligence and machine studying workflows.
“The brand new Kestrel GPU nodes are proving to be extraordinarily highly effective—our undertaking has developed algorithms that showcase Kestrel’s spectacular GPU acceleration for supplies and chemistry modeling,” mentioned NREL’s Derek Vigil-Fowler, principal investigator on the Past-DFT Electrochemistry with Accelerated and Solvated Strategies (BEAST) undertaking, funded by DOE’s Workplace of Science. “We’re leveraging the GPUs on Kestrel for high-fidelity simulation of electrocatalytic techniques, with the goal of designing higher catalysts for water electrolysis, gas cells, and carbon dioxide discount. The power to simulate complicated fashions of catalytic techniques with excessive constancy is invaluable to understanding elements that decide electrocatalytic efficiency, and Kestrel GPUs have demonstrated wonderful effectivity and scaling for these simulations.”
The work to put in Kestrel in NREL’s Vitality Methods Integration Facility consumer facility information middle kicked off with the arrival of the primary section of apparatus—together with 2,314 CPU nodes and a 95-petabyte parallel storage system—in March 2023. The CPU section of Kestrel was put in final summer time and was made out there to early customers, after which Kestrel opened for all initiatives for the beginning of the 2024 fiscal yr. In November 2023, the CPU section of Kestrel landed at #67 on the 62nd version of the TOP500, an industry-standard listing of the five hundred strongest computer systems on the earth, showcasing 14.3 petaflops of efficiency from the CPU functionality alone on Kestrel.
The rest of the Kestrel system arrived in February 2024: GPU nodes that includes H100 GPUs. Testing and validation of the nodes, and their integration into the total Kestrel system, was accomplished in Might, when early customers have been invited to check their codes and assist get the system prepared for all customers. Kestrel’s GPU nodes are actually launched to all Kestrel customers to speed up analysis crucial to the power transition.
“With Kestrel, researchers have entry to superior computing capabilities to do high-quality analysis on the tempo and scale essential to allow the power transition,” mentioned NREL’s Kristin Munch, laboratory program supervisor for superior computing and Kestrel undertaking supervisor. “We’ve been constructing to this second for greater than two years with an amazing crew working diligently to carry this spectacular system on-line for EERE researchers.”
Now that Kestrel is absolutely full, researchers are plugging in and utilizing Kestrel’s energy to speed up power analysis, driving developments in power effectivity, sustainable transportation, renewable energy, and power techniques integration. The FY 2023 Advanced Computing Annual Report particulars how high-performance computing is advancing clear power analysis and scientific collaboration.
“We’re tremendous excited to have the total capabilities of Kestrel out there to the analysis neighborhood,” mentioned NREL’s Aaron Andersen, superior computing operations group supervisor. “Kestrel’s CPU nodes make the most of 100% direct liquid cooling for all elements. From an effectivity standpoint, Kestrel has greater than two occasions the effectivity of our earlier supercomputer, Eagle, offering 10.4 gigaflops per watt versus Eagle at 4.7 gigaflops per watt. Kestrel continues NREL’s management in environment friendly computing.”
supply: NREL
