The upgrade of the ASKAP HPC platform: system sizing and lessons learned after several years of operating an HPC facility as part of the telescope

Mr Juan Guzman¹

¹Csiro, Kensington, Australia

Abstract:

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre (Pawsey) is one of the two Tier-1 National High Performance Computing (HPC) in Australia whose primary function is to accelerate scientific research for the benefit of the nation with a particular focus on supporting the operational Computing needs of the SKA precursors ASKAP and MWA. In 2018 Pawsey received a grant from the Federal Government to upgrade its HPC infrastructure, including a replacement of the Supercomputer dedicated to ASKAP and MWA. This paper describes the revisited HPC requirements of ASKAP for the Pawsey Refresh project, including what we’ve learned so far from running the data processing software in the existing production system. We will also report on the lessons learned on the process of procurement and system sizing of an HPC platform dedicated to an operational radio telescope.

Biography:

JC Guzman is the Head of the Software and Computing Group at CSIRO Astronomy and Space Science, and has been in that position since 2013. He has 20+ years of experience in developing software applications for Astronomical Instruments, including optical and radio. His latest achievements include the development of the ASKAP software and key contributions to the SKA project during its pre-construction phase.

- HPC
December 19, 2019

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