Saudi Arabian supercomputer enters top ten list

[Saif al-Arab]

Saudi Arabian supercomputer enters top ten list
​

13 July 2015

Wiring up a supercomputer such as the Shaheen II is a formidable task​

For the first time a supercomputer based in the Middle East has entered the top ten list of the most powerful computers on the planet.

The Shaheen II is based at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) in Saudi Arabia.

The Cray XC40 computer is the seventh most powerful machine in the world, said the Top 500 organisation that monitors high-performance machines.

China's Tianhe-2 retained its position at the top of the supercomputer list.

Weather models
Shaheen II's place on the list was revealed in the Top 500's latest release of its biannual rankings.

The Shaheen (Peregrine Falcon) II has a peak number-crunching capacity of 5.536 petaflops making it, said the Top 500, "the highest-ranked Middle East system in the 22-year history of the list and the first to crack the Top 10".

Kaust has spent about $80m (£51m) buying, installing and operating the Cray machine which is about 25 times more powerful than the machine it is replacing.

The machine uses 200,000 processors arranged in more than 6,000 nodes, has 17.6 petabytes of storage and 790 terabytes of main memory. By contrast, China's Tianhe-2 has a peak processing ability of 33.86 petaflops spread across 16,000 nodes.

A petaflop is equal to about one quadrillion calculations per second. One estimate suggests it would take a human about 32,000,000 years to complete the same task.

The machine, based in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia is being used for research projects modelling turbulence in engines, atmospheric dynamics, and renewable energy grids.

Industrial partners of Kaust are also planning to use it to help refine their search for minerals and fossil fuels and in the processing of raw materials.

In a blog entry detailing the latest list, the Top 500 organisation said the rate of growth in global computing power was slowing down. This was because relatively few new massive supercomputers had been switched on in the last few years. Many of those at the top of the list were installed and first operated in 2011 and 2012, it said.

Saudi supercomputer enters top ten list - BBC News

Great news. KAUST is improving for each year. Give it a decade and it will become one of the best universities in the world. If it is not already.

 

[Gasoline]

Great news. KAUST is improving for each year. Give it a decade and it will become one of the best universities in the world. If it is not already.

That what we're working on.

In few months KAUST singed an ambitious contracts with various partners in different fields .1st one ,the contract with Antonov to manufacture the an-132 plane with special specs. 2nd one ,the contract with the Russian Space Agency. 3rd one, the contract with the Turkish Aselsan in defense technologies .

Since there are heavy projects and the university is working in a various specializations , I'm sure there will be more stronger upgrades.

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

That what we're working on.

In few months KAUST singed an ambitious contracts with various partners in different fields .1st one ,the contract with Antonov to manufacture the an-132 plane with special specs. 2nd one ,the contract with the Russian Space Agency. 3rd one, the contract with the Turkish Aselsan in defense technologies .

Since there are heavy projects and the university is working in a various specializations , I'm sure there will be more stronger upgrades.

Never ! Not with shaheen (KAUST). Need new indigene supercomputer in collaboration with China, Pakistan or may be Turkey (In 10 or 15 years).

Shaheen Restrictions usage (PDF link)


This one (Shaheen), it's just to learn to master, one the best machines in the world.



...

 

[Gasoline]

Never ! Not with shaheen (KAUST). Need new indigene supercomputer in collaboration with China, Pakistan or may be Turkey (In 10 or 15 years).

Shaheen Restrictions usage (PDF link)


This one (Shaheen), it's just to learn to master, one the best machines in the world.



...

So that means we need to build another ONES ?

 

[Saif al-Arab]

That what we're working on.

In few months KAUST singed an ambitious contracts with various partners in different fields .1st one ,the contract with Antonov to manufacture the an-132 plane with special specs. 2nd one ,the contract with the Russian Space Agency. 3rd one, the contract with the Turkish Aselsan in defense technologies .

Since there are heavy projects and the university is working in a various specializations , I'm sure there will be more stronger upgrades.

All very encouraging news my brother. I am telling you that despite some pessimists here and there and sometimes idiotic policies (I am sorry that I have to say this but every country suffers from this on some fields, KSA is no exception) the future is very bright. There is a huge unfulfilled potential among our youth.

The government must continue to invest in science, technology, education and continue to diversify the economy and invest in the youth.

Corruption and nepotism must be combated much more, certain idiotic (we all know them so won't mention them) laws must be removed and economic reforms are also needed. Of course everything takes it's time and we should do it step by step but on the other hand the world is changing quickly and we can't allow ourselves to remain stagnated and get fooled by our wealth.

I must have missed the contract with ASELSAN. What is that about? Anything serious? It would be good if that would be the case.

I am personally always skeptical about the Russian regime. Frankly I would have preferred if we increased our ties with China even further and it for instance pains me that we have so few relations (compared to other countries at least) with our brothers and sisters in South East Asia mainly Indonesia. We share much with them and alone in Indonesia there is an Arab-Indonesian community of almost 10 million! All almost exclusively originally from Yemen (Hadhramaut and Hijaz). In KSA we have a very big Indonesian community (South East Asian as a whole). Many of them are citizens today because they migrated centuries ago.We should increase our ties with them much more.

Of course I welcome increased cooperation and better ties with Russia but allow me to be skeptical about the Putin regime but I am ready to be positively surprised.

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

So that means we need to build another ONES ?

Yes absolutely for all projects of defense, space - launcher or satellite - and nuclear.



...

 

[Gasoline]

I must have missed the contract with ASELSAN. What is that about? Anything serious? It would be good if that would be the case.

There were no details about the contract, but KAUST interested in Radar technology and UAVs .

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Never ! Not with shaheen (KAUST). Need new indigene supercomputer in collaboration with China, Pakistan or may be Turkey (In 10 or 15 years).

Shaheen Restrictions usage (PDF link)


This one (Shaheen), it's just to learn to master, one the best machines in the world.



...

Don't forget France here (Tera 100). Maybe even Russia? They are improving on this field too. Japan is another option.

Those countries are on another level though. Decades of experience and several supercomputers. We are at our infancy. We must thus learn from the best. You have to start somewhere. Most countries don't even invest in supercomputing nowadays.

I think that if the Arab League pursued a truly uniting policy we could kickstart some seriously promising projects on all of those fields. Hell even if the GCC worked much more together.

Imagine for one second what the GCC just together with Egypt could create potentially? Endless money, almost 150 million people etc. I am not even talking about the entire Arab world.

There is something seriously wrong with our leaderships on those fronts. Can't they see that cooperation (real one) is the only way forward for us? Can't they see the enormous potential?

How hard can it be for the Arab League to make some joint projects on those fronts? We don't even need everyone onboard. GCC, Jordan and Egypt (for instance) would suffice. Later such cooperation could expand easily within the Arab world.

This can easily be done while ALSO cooperating with any other non-Arab partner (s).

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

Don't forget France here (Tera 100). Maybe even Russia? They are improving on this field too. Japan is another option.

...

Not Russia, this is one of its major weaknesses which cause largely his stall in military R&D in the future - no qualitative factory chips -. Now they cheat again but this can't go on.


...

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Not Russia, this is one of its major weaknesses which cause largely his stall in military R&D in the future - no qualitative factory chips -. Now they cheat again but this can't go on.


...

I was not aware of that. My impression was that they had improved in recent years. I would not underestimate them at least. For sure France, UK, Japan and South Korea would be capable partners who could help right here and now.

We should aim to get other GCC and Arab countries onboard. This is why I am saying that there need to be much more cooperation in terms of the military sector across the Arab world. The more partners you get onboard the better for everyone. I used the GCC + Egypt + Jordan example and it's still valid.

More KAUST'S are needed too.

@Frogman do you know about supercomputing in Egypt? What is the status?

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

Don't forget France here (Tera 100). Maybe even Russia? They are improving on this field too. Japan is another option.

Those countries are on another level though. Decades of experience and several supercomputers. We are at our infancy. We must thus learn from the best. You have to start somewhere. Most countries don't even invest in supercomputing nowadays.

I think that if the Arab League pursued a truly uniting policy we could kickstart some seriously promising projects on all of those fields. Hell even if the GCC worked much more together.

Imagine for one second what the GCC just together with Egypt could create potentially? Endless money, almost 150 million people etc. I am not even talking about the entire Arab world.

There is something seriously wrong with our leaderships on those fronts. Can't they see that cooperation (real one) is the only way forward for us? Can't they see the enormous potential?

How hard can it be for the Arab League to make some joint projects on those fronts? We don't even need everyone onboard. GCC, Jordan and Egypt (for instance) would suffice. Later such cooperation could expand easily within the Arab world.

This can easily be done while ALSO cooperating with any other non-Arab partner (s).

Don't worry ! Has already started (GCC), but it will be very patient.

UAE : Traditions are changing. We are going from sand to silicon.



...

 

[RAMPAGE]

Hey stop copying our names.

This is Shaheen II :

 

[Bubblegum Crisis]

You can ask for India's help on Super computer as we are helping on your mars mission.
India is said to make 70 Supercomputers in 7 years from now on which will deliver 50 petaflops.
Also India is in it's process of making 130 exascale supercomputer in 5 to 6 years.

Strange idea... ^ ^

India does not accept because of our strategic friendship with Pakistan (China).

Also Japan (Veto USA), South Korea (Veto USA), UK (USA), France (Protect Nuclear Capacity for its own interests - logical -).



...

 

[Saif al-Arab]

Strange idea... ^ ^

India does not accept because of our strategic friendship with Pakistan (China).

Also Japan (Veto USA), South Korea (Veto USA), France (Protect Nuclear Capacity for its own interests - logical -).



...

We should not really limit ourselves when it comes to such cooperation with foreign countries. India is not an enemy state at all in our eyes or that of the GCC and Arab world. Not today let alone historically. We have MILLENNIUM old trade relations with India and India is also home to almost 200 Muslims. Not that religion is important here in this context but just saying. India is one of the biggest trading partners of the GCC and Arab world. In fact India's biggest trading partner is the GCC.

We can have such cooperation with India if it benefits us despite our longstanding friendship and alliance with Pakistan. This is not a kindergarden. Pakistan has no problem with cooperating with our sole enemy (Iran) for instance.

Also India should have no problem with our close economic ties with China or the relationship China has with Pakistan as India themselves trade with China a lot. It will only increase. China is doing trade with all the big economies of the world so India cannot avoid having ties with countries that have close ties to the Chinese.

We should cooperate with Israel too if that benefits us. In fact I hope that we establish diplomatic relations with Israel (official one) as a neighbor just like Egypt and Jordan have done. We have a few interests in common and we can benefit a lot from Israeli cooperation.

If Turkey which is not a neighbor of Israel unlike us, can have billion big trade with Israel why can we not? We don't have to agree with Israel politically when it comes to Palestine but we can have relations with them. I believe that you can only solve problems if you actually have a dialogue between the parties that are in conflict. A real one.

It's time to be pragmatic for once and not hold ourselves as hostage.

Did you not learn anything from the recent Yemen conflict? Where are our so-called brotherly countries? We are alone just like every other country at the end of the day when shit hits the fan.

We Arabs/Semites dominated trade at the crossroads of the world (MENA region) connecting Europe, Africa and the remaining Asia with each other and we once mastered pragmatism. Sadly it seems that many of our leaders have forgot that.

We need to adopt the UAE model in this case 100% and it cannot happen soon enough.

Those that want to wage wars against Israel and what not should do that and leave the progress for the rest of us.

Cousins @500 @Natan @GBU-28 is Israel competent when it comes to supercomputing?

 

[BLACKEAGLE]

Hey stop copying our names.

This is Shaheen II :

I love the look and the name.