// Discover 

NCCS' PRIMARY COMPUTING PLATFORM

The centerpiece of the NCCS is the over 127,232-core "Discover" supercomputing cluster, an assembly of multiple Linux scalable units built upon commodity components capable of nearly 8.1 petaflops, or 8,100 trillion floating-point operations per second.

Discover is particularly suited for large, complex, communications-intensive problems employing large matrices and science applications, which benefit from its ecosystem of system software and tools. Example applications include fine-scale, high-fidelity simulations of the atmosphere and oceans that span time scales from days (weather prediction), to seasons and years (short-term climate prediction), to decades and centuries (climate change projection).

Discover derives its name from the NASA adage of "Explore. Discover. Understand." The NCCS installed the first scalable unit in the fall of 2006 and continues to expand this highly successful computing platform.

// System Specifications


AGGREGATE

 

103 racks
(computer, storage, and more)

8.1 Pflop/s

97,597 Total Cores


FILE SYSTEM & STORAGE

 

IBM GPFS

49.5 PB Disk


OPERATING ENVIRONMENT

 

Operating System: SLES

Job Scheduler: Slurm

Compilers: C, C++, Fortran
(Intel and PGI)

Analysis applications
include IDL, Matlab, and more


// Using Discover 

Everything you need to know about how to work with Discover:

  • Best practices
  • Tools
  • Resource Manager (SLURM)
  • Software
  • User FAQ’s
  • Instructionals

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// Fun Facts


Performance
Discover’s over 97,000 cores perform nearly 5.1 quadrillion calculations per second

Network
Extremely powerful network could download 28,000 movies in one second

Speed
One of the top 35 fastest supercomputers in the world

Power
Runs on 2 megawatts of power - electricity to power +/- 1,400 homes


// Time-Lapse Installation 

Time-lapse photography captures key moments of Discover’s supercomputing SCU14 hardware installation.

SCU14 Time-lapse Installation #1

SCU14 Time-lapse Installation #2



Each project's computational requirements are unique. Explore our case studies to see how the NCCS is innovating tailor-made solutions for NASA projects.

 

CASE STUDIES

// Account Information 


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See information about account eligibility, set-up, and maintenance, or reset password.

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