Skip to main content

Dardel inauguration: New SNIC supercomputer attracts strong interest

Slides from inauguration presentations now available online!

Published Feb 08, 2022

On the 25th of January 2022, the first phase of the new SNIC supercomputer system at PDC, Dardel, was inaugurated during a virtual event. More than a hundred people joined in from all over Sweden and also from Europe and North America, which demonstrated a strong interest in this new HPE Cray supercomputer.

In a range of presentations, the director of PDC, Dirk Pleiter, the director of SNIC, Lars Nordström, and HPE’s vice-president for HPC/AI in Europe and the Middle East, Mark Armstrong, introduced Dardel as a new facility for computational research in Sweden. Despite all the difficulties that arose due to the pandemic while installing the system, we have succeeded in getting the new supercomputer, which is based on brand new technologies, into stable operation with all performance targets being reached. This major team effort involved the whole staff at PDC, as well as various people from the suppliers.

In October last year, selected researchers were invited to start using Dardel for their research to test the robustness of the new system. The inauguration was an opportunity to highlight some of that research and demonstrate that Dardel is already fulfilling its goal of enabling new research. Philipp Schlatter from KTH reported on new simulations of the airflow around rotating propellers and showed how well his group’s applications scale on Dardel. Olle Eriksson, from the universities in Uppsala and Örebro, highlighted the use of Dardel for investigating the magnetic properties of materials at different scales. Finally, Patrick Norman from KTH presented initial results using VeloxChem, a new application for theoretical chemistry research. All three of these stimulating research talks nicely showcased the many opportunities that Dardel opens up, which should convince even more researchers to apply to use Dardel’s excellent computing resources.

PDC would like to thank all the speakers, and also the VIC Studio  at KTH which hosted the inauguration event. We now look forward to more exciting developments when the second phase of Dardel is inaugurated later this year.

For those who were unable to attend the event live, or who would like to refresh themselves about details, copies of the presentations are available through the following links.