CACR Participation in Energy-Efficient HPC Working Group

Chip Chapman, CACR Facilities Manager, has joined the Energy Efficient High Performance Computing Working Group. This group, founded at SC08 in Austin, TX also includes participation from several national labs and other major HPC manufacturers and users.

The activities of this committee include:

• Market pull strategies (collectively influencing vendors)
• HPC/SC energy performance metrics and benchmarking
• Computer center (infrastructure) energy performance metrics and benchmarking
• Best practices, case studies, and lessons learned in design and operation of super computer centers
• Energy efficient design guidelines and specifications for super computer centers
• Improving software for energy efficiency
• Integrating energy efficiency into SC09’s technical program and HPCC (energy challenge) – subject to organizer’s approval

CACR’s goals in participating in this initiative are to keep our infrastructure as efficient as possible and to help Caltech’s Facility department make informed choices when preparing upgrades or modifications to the existing and future HPC computer rooms on campus.