High Performance Computing Cluster

The Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) is seeking to purchase a medium scale High Performance Computing Cluster (HPCC). The HPCC will be used to run a range of engineering modelling software, including several radiation modelling codes and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) software suites.

This software generally involves large scale memory intensive computation to be performed over thousands of iterations. In order to generate results within an acceptable timeframe, parallel computation techniques need to be used. All of this software is capable of running the computation in parallel across several hundred nodes.

The new HPCC will substantially increase the modelling capability of DSTO by significantly reducing the computation time required to model and simulate increasingly complex physics. In addition to the supply of the hardware, this contract will also cover the procurement of an initially three-year software support and maintenance contract between DSTO and the HPCC vendor.

The software support contract will include the vendor providing technical support, upgrade and maintenance of the Red Hat Enterprise Linux Operating System (OS), cluster software environments and management tools, platform MPI, PBS Professional job queuing system and hardware fault diagnostic tools.