A Blue Waters test run that began Nov. 6 is providing staff with critical feedback on the system’s operation, a National Center for Supercomputing Applications spokeswoman said.
The test run, called “friendly-user” mode, gives researchers the opportunity to use the supercomputer to test the system and work on their research, said NCSA spokeswoman Trish Barker. This is the next step toward receiving approval from the National Science Foundation and the system’s eventual operation.
“It’s mutually beneficial because they get access to the supercomputer, and we get a lot of feedback from them on how well the supercomputer is running,” Barker said. The process is referred to as acceptance testing.
Greg Bauer, Blue Waters advanced user support program manager, said the friendly-user period allows Blue Waters staff to test the system’s operation.
“The friendly-user period provides a way for the researchers to run their applications on the machine and lets us test different aspects of the machine,” Bauer said. “We put the machine through its paces and make sure we’re not missing something before finishing.”
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According to the NCSA website, several research groups are participating in the friendly-user period, including University professors Klaus Schulten, Bob Wilhelmson and Don Wuebbles.
The system is also going through additional testing called availability testing, Bauer said.
“(Availability testing) is a period of time during the acceptance tests where the machine has to provide a certain amount of useful work,” he said. “A certain success rate for jobs has to be achieved.”
According to Bauer, there are over 500 tests conducted by the NCSA in the acceptance stage. But due to time constraints, the Blue Waters team has to intersperse these tests during the friendly-user period.
“When all of the testing is completed, and we have demonstrated to the NSF that the supercomputer is ready, then we will go into full production status,” Barker said.
Full production status is expected to be reached in early 2013, and Barker said they expect operations to last for about five years.
Austin can be reached at [email protected].
