Scientific Computing and Visualization group Mission

The Office of Information Technology’s Scientific Computing and Visualization (SCV) group provides specialized computing and communication resources in support of computational science and engineering, scientific visualization, computer graphics, and other disciplines that require high-performance computing, networking, or graphics. Typical applications include scientific and engineering simulation, data analysis and visualization, image manipulation, and the graphic and fine arts.

The SCV computing facilities include parallel supercomputers, computer clusters, high-performance workstations and servers, and high-performance networks. SCV manages these resources in close collaboration with the University’s Center for Computational Science (CCS), an interdisciplinary center that fosters computational science research and education in the Boston University community

The resources provided by SCV include:

•      High-performance, parallel computing systems and networks

•      Scientific code parallelization and optimization

•      Scientific data visualization

•      High-performance and high-resolution interactive three-dimensional graphics

•      Virtual environments/virtual reality

•      Consulting and training

•      Network-based video conferencing and collaboration tools

BU/SCV Eligibility

The supercomputers, workstation clusters, and high-performance network, collectively known as the Scientific Computing Facilities (SCF), are available free of charge to all members of the Boston University research community, their collaborators, and students in approved courses. All SCF computer accounts are associated with a research or educational project, which may be initiated by any Boston University faculty member. The faculty member serves as the principal investigator and may authorize individual accounts for use by his or her research associates. To initiate a new research project, faculty should submit a Principal Investigator Application, which is available online via SCV’s website.

Graphics Laboratory and Virtual Reality facilities are available to all faculty and students who require this specialized equipment. Individuals who require frequent access to the facilities may arrange to be issued an access card-key.

SCV's consulting, training, and educational services are offered without charge to all users of the facilities.

Services

Consulting

SCV staff assist the community in effectively utilizing high-performance computing, visualization, and network resources. System consultants help in the use of the supercomputing systems, their various programming tools and packages, and data management. Scientific programming consultants offer assistance in program parallelization, performance measurement, and code tuning. They also provide help with numerical methods and computational techniques. Graphics consultants provide assistance with the use of graphics and visualization packages, the development of custom computer graphics tools, the application of graphics algorithms, and the conversion of data into effective graphical representations.

Training and Education

Members of the SCV staff provide tutorials covering parallel programming techniques and languages; image manipulation and printing; data analysis and plotting; computer animation; scientific visualization; and application programming for the Web. Most of SCV’s tutorials are available on the Web. Special presentations of these topics to a group, such as a class or seminar, may be arranged.

SCV also hosts training sessions, workshops, user groups, and symposia, both in person and through the Access Grid video conferencing facility. A schedule of these events is available on the SCV website. 

Information Services

The SCV website at http://scv.bu.edu/ contains more detailed descriptions of SCV facilities and services, technical reference materials, online tutorials, events, and schedules. The SCV website is also used for managing computer accounts and allocations for all of the SCV resources.

Facilities

SCV operates and manages resources for high-performance computing and communication, scientific visualization, and computer graphics. These facilities include an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, an IBM pSeries supercomputing cluster, a Linux cluster, video conferencing facilities, a virtual reality facility, high-performance networks, and the Computer Graphics Laboratory.

Computation

At the core of SCV’s computational facilities are a number of advanced, multiprocessor computing systems. These systems are available to all University faculty members for research, as well as for educational use in computational science-related courses.

The University’s newest and most powerful computing system is an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer. This system comprises 1024 compute nodes, each containing a dual-processor PowerPC chip and 512 MB of memory. The peak performance of this system is 5.7 TFLOPS (trillion floating point operations per second). This system was ranked 59th in the June 2005 TOP500 list of the world’s fastest supercomputers.

Complementing the Blue Gene is a cluster of IBM pSeries parallel, shared-memory computers with a total of 184 processors. Four of the computers are IBM model p690 systems, powered by RS6000 Power4 processors, each running at 1.3 GHz, with 1 GB (gigabyte) of memory per processor. Three of the p690 computers have 32 processors and the fourth has 16. The remaining 72 processors comprise nine 8-processor, model p655 systems, powered by 1.1 or 1.7 GHz Power4 processors with either 1 or 2 GB of memory per processor. The peak performance of the entire pSeries cluster is nearly 1 TFLOPS.

The supercomputing facilities are further augmented with an Intel-based Linux cluster. This cluster consists of 52 dual-processor compute nodes and 24 graphics display nodes, all on a multi-gigabit/second Myrinet network. The graphics nodes drive a large-format, high-resolution display wall in the Computer Graphics Lab.

Data storage for these systems is provided by a 7 terabyte disk array and a robotic tape system capable of storing 150 terabytes.

These systems offer a wide range of programming languages, parallelizing compilers, mathematical and scientific libraries, graphics and visualization software, and discipline-specific application packages.

Networking

With the assistance of the Network Systems Group, SCV provides Myrinet, Gigabit Ethernet, and Fast Ethernet networks to interconnect its computing systems and to connect to the campus and external networks.

Boston University is a member of Internet2, a consortium formed by over 200 US research institutions and their partners to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies in support of research and education. The University is also a founding member of the Northern Crossroads (NoX), an affiliation of approximately two dozen institutions with a common interest in facilitating advanced networking in New England. The NoX and Internet2 maintain regional and national networks that interconnect at 2.4Gb/s. The NoX serves as an even higher-performance regional exchange to New England participants and commodity Internet service providers (ISPs). Additionally, the University is connected to the Metro Ring—144 optical fibers spanning a 7.4-mile radius through Boston and Cambridge. A vast and diverse array of optical fiber connections to the NoX, Metro Ring, and commercial ISPs provide multiple Gb/s of bandwidth and afford scalable connectivity to regional collaborators, the Internet, Internet2, and international research networks as needs arise.

Access Grid Video Conferencing

The Access Grid is a suite of hardware and software tools developed by Argonne National Laboratory to facilitate group-to-group collaborations over high-performance networks. These facilities were prototyped by a number of research institutions, primarily members of the National Computational Science Alliance, including Boston University, and have now been deployed in more than 500 locations around the world. The tools currently include audio and video conferencing, shared presentations, shared movies and images, and experimental versions of shared visualization tools.

Our facility consists of a seminar-style room with a 13.5' x 7.5' multi-projector display and other multimedia equipment. The facility is used for large and small meetings, seminars, lectures, and tutorials. A schedule of public events is available on the SCV website.

SCV staff are available for consultation regarding the use of Access Grid technology and to collaborate with members of the Boston University community on events which use the Access Grid.

Virtual Reality

SCV's Laboratory for Immersive Virtual Environments (LIVE) supports research on virtual reality by providing hardware and software for immersive experiences. These systems use stereoscopic displays to create the illusion of three dimensions and provide a variety of input and tracking systems to interact with the scene.

SCV's premier visualization facility is a 15' x 8' stereoscopic display wall which is capable of displaying extremely high-resolution (18 MPixel) images. The image on the wall is rear-projected from an array of 24 projectors which are in turn driven by 24 Linux-based computers. These computers are part of the larger SCV Linux cluster which can be used to generate or process data for the display computers. Unlike our other immersive systems which use active electronics for stereopsis, this system uses simple polarizing filters and glasses. A variety of input devices are available for interaction.

A second system using a Fakespace Systems ImmersaDesk provides a 4' x 5', semi-immersive, multi-observer display. A head-tracking system is used to update a viewer’s position and a multi-axis wand is used to interact with the scene. This system is driven by a four-processor SGI Onyx2 equipped with InfinityReality2 graphics.

All of these systems have associated multi-channel audio systems and software which can be used for a variety of purposes, including digital audio playback, sonification (the auditory equivalent of visualization), 3D audio localization for immersive environments, and Internet-based telephony.

Programs for the virtual environment systems use software which includes the CAVE library, Performer, OpenGL, Open Inventor, VTK, OpenDX, WireGL/ Chromium, and SCV's in-house DAFFIE system.

Computer Graphics Laboratory

The Computer Graphics Laboratory provides general access to high-end graphics workstations, as well as access to the high-end immersive facilities. The workstations in the lab include Windows and Linux computers that run a variety of visualization, computer graphics, modeling, and animation software.

BU/SCV Software

Software on the IBM Blue Gene, pSeries, and Linux systems support the development of parallel programs using data-parallel, message-passing, and shared-memory paradigms. Parallelizing compilers for FORTRAN and C are also available, as are mathematical and scientific subroutine libraries. Other packages are available for distributed computing, modeling and rendering, animation, image manipulation, scientific visualization, and plotting.

Programming languages

•      C

•      C++

•      FORTRAN (F77, F90, and F95)

•      High-performance FORTRAN

Parallel libraries

•      OpenMP

•      Message Passing Interface (MPI)

Job management

•      Load Leveler, load balancer, and batch manager (Blue Gene)

•      Load Sharing Facility (LSF)—load balancer and batch manager (pSeries)

•      Portable Batch System (PBS)—load balancer and batch manager (Linux)

Mathematics, data analysis, and plotting

•      IBM ESSL—Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library

•      IBM PESSL—Parallel Engineering and Scientific Subroutine Library

•      Mathematica—symbolic math package with graphic display

•      MATLAB—math and engineering package

•      MAPLE—interactive computer algebra system

•      GAUSS—mathematical and statistical system

•      Interactive Data Language  (IDL)—data analysis and visualization

Visualization

•      OpenDX—scientific visualization package

•      VTK—visualization tool library

•      SDSC Image Tools—image manipulation programs

•      ImageMagick—image manipulation programs

Animation and graphics

•      Alias Maya—modeling and animation software

•      OpenGL Performer—high-performance graphics package

•      Open Inventor—3D graphics library and utilities

•      OpenGL/GLUT—3D direct- rendering library and window utilities

•      X11/Motif—graphics and window manager

•      CAVE—virtual environments graphics subroutine library

•      DAFFIE—distributed virtual environment software

•      Chromium—tiled display manager for OpenGL programs

Scientific and engineering applications

•      CHARMm—molecular modeling

•      Gaussian—quantum chemistry

Information

Access Grid Conference Facility
111 Cummington Street / Room B17
Boston, MA 02215
617-358-0033
E-mail: accessgrid@bu.edu
http://scv.bu.edu/accessgrid/

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