The second generation of Shaheen has the following specifications:
Cray XC40 supercomputer with DataWarp technology
Cray Sonexion 2000 storage system
Shaheen I
The first generation of Shaheen included the following functional elements:
16 racks of Blue Gene/P, having a peak performance of 222 Teraflops
164 IBMIBM System x 3550 Xeon nodes, having a peak performance of 12 Teraflops
Performance
Shaheen I's performance and computing capabilities included:
65,536 independent processing cores.
10 Gbit/s access to world's academic and research networks.
The file system and tape drive were mounted across both the Blue Gene system and the Linux cluster. All elements of the system were connected together on a common network backbone that is accessible from all campus buildings. The systems were also be accessible from the Internet.
Services
The Shaheen system at KAUST Supercomputing Laboratory is available to help KAUST users and projects, to provide training and advice, to develop and deploy applications, to provide consultation on best practices and to provide collaboration support as needed. KAUST Faculty will have access to:
General support for Shaheen facility use, including usage scheduling of Shaheen and peripheral systems
High-performance computing support for "Grand Challenges" by collaboration with the Center to deliver fundamental breakthroughs in specific areas of research
Collaboration to provide high-performance computing applications, middleware, library, algorithm support and enablement services
Applications Enablement where users can task the CDCR to develop, enable, port and scale key applications
High-performance Computing Program Best Practice Management techniques
Participation with KAUST researchers in external projects
Data sets for this research will be unique in that they will come from the Saudi Arabia region, focusing on areas such as oil and gas reserves, Red Sea data, and other areas distinctive to KAUST.
Restrictions
Although KAUST does not support any kind of discrimination against any students or faculty based on religion, sex, or national origin, IBM and Cray have to comply with US Export regulations governing exporting high-end computing technology. As per the regulations a restriction had to be made to deny nationals of Syria, Iran, Sudan, Cuba, and North Korea from access to the supercomputer.
Institutional Partners
The Shaheen system at KAUST is made possible through a joint collaboration between the Cray and KAUST. In addition to IBM and Cray, KSL has partnered with the following partner research institutions and organizations:
