CSAR Bulletin issued in August 2004

Newton Expansion

As announced in a recent email, the expansion to the Newton service is well under way. Phase 1 involved the installation of a new system (currently called newtd), with 128 processors, each with 4GB memory, and the expansion of the memory on the 256 processor Newton system to 2GB per processor. This work was completed on Tuesday 20th July. For further details of the expansion to the service, please see: www.csar.cfs.ac.uk/about/news/newton_news.shtml

Virement of Resources from HPCX to CSAR

In conjunction with the expansion of the Newton service, EPSRC have announced a further opportunity to transfer resources from HPCx to CSAR. There are two deadlines - the 1st September and 1st December. If you would like to discuss this opportunity, or would like any assistance in assessing the performance of your codes on Newton, please contact the CSAR helpdesk. Please note that the additional memory may now allow you to run codes that you could not previously, or allow them to run more efficiently. For further details, including the letter issued by EPSRC detailing how to apply to transfer resources, please see: www.csar.cfs.ac.uk/about/news/newton_vire.shtml.

Modules On Newton

The naming convention for the default compiler modules has been changed, in order to reflect the fact that they are frequently updated. The latest modules are now called: intel-compilers_7.1_latest and intel-compilers_8.0_latest (instead of intel-compilers_7.1 and intel-compilers_8.0). If you use these names the version of the compiler accessed will change whenever the compilers are updated. As updates are very frequent (typically every two weeks), it is not possible to keep all previous versions. Some previous versions will be retained when there is an explicit need. All versions available will be listed by typing the command: module avail. The previous names for the compilers will be removed on Friday 6th August. Please contact the CSAR helpdesk if this causes you any difficulty.

New CSAR Website

The new CSAR website is nearing completion, it is hoped that the site will be available within the next few weeks. Notification will be sent to all users nearer to the completion date advising when the new site is due to go live.