The Fundación Parque Científico de Murcia (FPCM) performs a role as an element of development for businesses of a high level of technology and it is directly involved with the university world of the region. Another aim is to pave the way for economic growth in the region in the new area of knowledge based economy. The supercomputer centre is a horizontal approach to all R + D activities under development, and so it means that the challenge to continue growing can be tackled with realistic possibilities of success and in a rational, rigorous and sustainable manner. Levels of wellbeing and social cohesion acquired through enhanced productivity along with diversification of economic activity towards business projects of ever higher technological content and greater added value are also among the targets sought. The Centre can boast a very advanced computer system, called the Supercomputador Ben Arabi (SCBA), which is capable of performing the most intensive calculations that research projects might demand of it.
The supercomputer centre gives the universities of the Region and public research and development institutions a competitive advantage in carrying out their projects and in achieving financing for them. The SCBA is also intended to provide the private sector with its advanced computing services.
This twin public and private sector focus is complemented by the desire to build an SCBA that is environmentally efficient and which may be become an international point of reference in this aspect.
The centre will mean that access will be available to advanced research programs. It will be possible to collaborate internationally with other scientific centres and, to a great extent, improve the quality of research in our Region. Moreover, the Supercomputer Centre is a part of one of the most important international cooperation networks, which means that Murcia can become a meeting point for businesses, researchers and scientists from all over the world. This in turn will lead to innovating and cutting edge solutions. Thanks to the Ben Arabi, Murcia will become a leader in the field of R+D+I.
Another important aim of the centre is to improve research productivity in the Region of Murcia and to take on new scientific challenges which have not been possible until now. Some of the new fields envisaged are Assisted Engineering, Bioinformatics, Chemistry, digital Contents, Geoscience, Environment and Grid Computation, all of which will make the centre a very attractive tool for businesses and for talents.
The special focus of the Supercomputer Centre, in the sense that it will take on various fields of action, along with its clear calling to provide services to both the scientific community and the business world, not to mention its environmentally friendly character, all make it a unique centre. To achieve all this it has been designed on the basis of the following:
- Flexibility in adapting to demands
- A huge capacity for growth and easy architecture evolution
- High performance balanced architecture. A high number of processes can be executed both sequentially and in parallel
- Excellent calculating capacity
- Easy to manage and single administration
- Standard industry processors
- Environment compliant technology, which is novel in its protection of nature
MISSION AND FUNCTIONS
The mission of the Supercomputer Centre is to foster, disseminate and provide intensive calculation services which will favour and promote innovation and knowledge in the Region of Murcia, while setting up spheres of collaboration that will improve and increase R+D+I activity.
Functions:
- To provide intensive calculation services and advanced communications to all users.
- To manage the data network of the FPCM and its businesses.
- To manage the communications network of the FPCM and its businesses.
- To provide support to the FPCM businesses.
BEN ARABÍ ARCHITECTURE
The Ben Arabí Supercomputer System is based on a pure symmetrical multiprocess architecture with no strongly coupled nodes, with a maximum total calculation power of 11 TFlop/s.
The figure below shows the main elements of the Ben Arabí Supercomputer:
