GSI Utilises Foundry To Power Particle Accelerator HPC Network

German-based Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung (GSI) has selected the high-performance computing (HPC) networking solution from Foundry Networks to improve operational efficiency. Foundry’s 10 gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) switching solution for the GSI’s particle accelerator network and facility allows wire-speed handling of the enormous volume of data resulting from experiments with the GSI’s own particle accelerator and with the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva.

Established in 1969, the goal of the scientific research conducted at the GSI is to understand the structure and behaviour of the world that surrounds us. The GSI operates an accelerator facility for heavy-ion beams, used for fundamental research. At the GSI, over 300 scientific researchers and engineers and more than 1000 guest researchers per year, from around the world, conduct research into areas ranging from nuclear and atomic physics to plasma and materials research as well as biophysics and cancer therapy.

By leveraging Foundry’s switches, the GSI is able to efficiently transport and process data from the collisions of subatomic particles on about 2,500 processing cores with computing power of 20 teraflops. The input and results data are stored on about 70 servers with a capacity of 700 terabytes.

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The GSI decided on Foundry’s high-performance networking solution to ensure congestion-free communication for its large group of computing and data nodes. Foundry’s BigIron RX-32 Layer 2/3 backbone switch was capable of fulfilling the switching capacity demands through its port density. The switch delivers flexibility and throughput, with up to 1,536 ports of GbE or 128-ports of 10GbE in a single chassis at wire-speed. The research institute is also extending its existing HPC network with Foundry’s FastIron Edge X and FastIron SuperX/SX Layer 2/3 switches while expanding several links to 10 gigabit Ethernet.