Barcelona Supercomputing Center

During the visit to Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), it is possible to see the physical center and at the same time, to know the applications of the Supercomputer. BSC is in number 34th on the Top 500 Supercomputer worldwide, waiting for new updating and then for scaling positions in the Top 500 ranking.

One Supercomputing is one big computer, which performs high operational rates, this rates are measured by Flops (Floating-point Operations per Second), and normally, this supercomputers are made by high number of computers in different architectures with applications to engineering or science simulations.

In the case of BSC, the system is integrated by 36 PC's, and in each of this PC's, there are 84 PC's. The system is based in Point-to-Point communication in one Parallel Processing Architecture, that's mean, every PC must be connected to all rest PC's. This Parallel Architecture is defined for operating in less time. Then every PC must be connected to 3023 points (36 PC's • 84 PC's = 3024) by fiber optic and cupper cable connection with high latency (cupper cable for the communication between Switches and Pc's. See Figure 1: orange: Fiber Optic and yellow: cupper cable).

Figure 1_Barcelona Supercomputing Center_Source: Javier Sanchez Rios picture.

All the BSC infrastructure is dedicated to implement simulations of complex systems. 

As examples, BSC is working in the study of one simulating system which will be able to supply big Data Processing Centers (DPC) with Renewable Energies, and then reducing the environmental impact and the O&M cost, for sure, big Data Centers from Google, Amanzon, Facebook etc will be interested in this investigation. Just imagine the combination of different supplying systems by Renewable Energies (Geothermal, Wind Power, PV Solar, CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) etc,  which as result, it gives the possibility for supplying the Data Center by the minimum amount of greenhouse gas emissions and the minimal cost for raw material in the electric supplying and cooling of the complete system. 

Following with the investigation of BSC, one of this projects is the study of new Computers Architectures in PC's. 

At the same time, the investigation team is working in aerodynamics simulation systems applied to Automotive Industry, for reducing the energy consumption in vehicles (see Figure 2 picture A; top left).

Other application is weather forecasting systems and wind conditions in Wind Farms, calculating turbulent kinetic energy, for having forecasting production for next 24-48 hours, very valuated information to the Electric System Operator for managing the Intermittent Renewable Energy (see Figure 2 picture B; top right). 

One more case, and following with this simulation applications, the simulation in the hydrodynamic systems, for optimizing the ship design and then the reduction of energy (see Figure 2 picture C; bottom left).

The last example selected by me, systems for predicting the level of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere. This nitrogen dioxide is produced by natural way, but only around 1% of total which is in atmosphere, the rest, it is produced by combustion processes, in cities mostly by transport vehicles. The nitrogen dioxide is responsible for photochemical smog, being one issue for human health and being one of the most important issues for air pollution in city environment. In the Figure 2 picture D (bottom right) it is possible to see which the highest number of grams by cubic meter is following the main cities in south west Europe. Following clockwise motion from top right corner, it is possible to appreciate the situation of Marseille, Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante, in Strait of Gibraltar, even the line formed by the high level of wind between north and south Mediterranean coast. Following the Atlantic coast; Lisbon, Porto and in northern with Cantabrian cities, in the center peninsule, Madrid, showing where the highest level of nitrogen dioxide is in the city.

Figure 2_Examples of R&D simulations projects in BSC_Source: Barcelona Supercomputing Center youtube channel and website.

Connecting with the applications of the simulation processes developed by Supercomputing Centers, just think about possible applications in future systems for Smart Grid Operations with forecasting for weather conditions and Renewable Energies production systems, for Smart Cities managing simulations systems, Demand Response, and even Health Care Industry and other multiple applications, and even evacuation systems, one project of BSC, in case of emergency, what are the possibilities of people reaction in one big cities for avoiding possible chaotic situations, like this example, etc and etc. 
Even, such as interesting and funny information, Pringles potatoes are with this peculiar form for being able to manage easily in production line and increase the production,, in terms of reduction of time (by high speed in the production line), this form is one result of one computational study.

Of course, this simulations systems are able to help for developing systems reducing the investing risk impacts and making simulation test which are very dangerous to make by Field Test (imagine nuclear applications). 
But the most important issue presented for developing bigger Computer and Database systems is just the energy consumption in the performing.

Considering the case of the BSC, the system has a consumption of 1.08 MW/year, only considering the computer system, not considering the cooling system.

The computer systems needs to work at 24ºC (297.15 Kelvin degrees) and for sure, in summer in Barcelona, it is normal to overcome this temperature. Just as information, imagine the number one Supercomputing in the World, which is consuming already 18MW/year (only computer system).

Regarding the consumption of the Computer Centers, it is not possible to change the energy consumption in terms of internal operation, only changing the structure (computing architecture or new materials). There are different projects in course in the Center. 
One, is using graphene in substitution of silicon, graphene has more conductivity in terms of thermal and electrical properties and then reducing the consumption of energy in the CPU's performance. There is also very interesting application in the same line for PV cells and LED lighting.

At the same time, the Center is working in developing CPU's based in mobile phone CPU's structure. Mobile phone has suffered great development in terms of energy efficiency, because the systems work with batteries, and then the first limitation is the energy. The high investment in mobile phone technology gives the opportunity for taking the experience in this technology and implementing in the Supercomputing technology, reducing the energy consumption and then giving the possibility to increase the capacity of operation in the Supercomputer systems.

In terms of Energy Efficiency, it is very important to reduce the energy consumption of the HVAC systems, which is the responsible for keeping the necessary temperature for the optimal funtionality of CPU's. 

The cooling system in BSC is using air system for keeping optimal temperature working range at 24ºC in CPU's and, at the same time, water for cooling this air in one close looping process. Of course this systems is with high energy consumption.

In the case of BSC, there is no any implementation for supplying the center by any Renewable Energy, but of course there is possibilities. 
Geothermal Energy, Such as possible solution for this cooling system it will be one possible solution for reducing the needs for the HVAC. Geothermal systems are well implemented in Nordics countries, even there is one possibility for even capturing Carbon Dioxide for Fossil Fuel Power Plants in combination with geothermal power production. 

Also is able to consider the Bioclimatic Architecture for getting the most profit of the own building in terms of temperature, sun radiation etc.

As a conclusion, with the increasing number of Supercomputing and Data Centers, Energy Efficiency in this kind of infrastructure, will be every day more important, because the capacity of the computer is increasing, and then, the needs for cooling the complete systems. 
May be, for that reason, Dublin is one of the world leaders cities of Data Centers installed, which weather conditions are optimal for this infrastructure.

In the meanwhile Data Centers and Supercomputing Centers will increase in the next future, for the increasing of needs for simulation process and for the increasing number of internet necessities, in terms of capacity, for the high volume of information, Energy Efficiency, will play a big role in the development of this systems, if not the cost and the operation of the complete system will be untenable.

Figure 3_ Cooling system for BSC_Source: Javier Sanchez Rios picture