Platforms
WAVIhpc contains templates for the following platforms: ARCHER2, BAS HPC and JASMIN. But which one should you use?
This page aims to give a high-level comparison and quickstart guide to each platform.
Comparison
Below is a comparison table of usage and hardware specification of the different supported platforms. Number of nodes/cores are not exact, but are intended to be indicative.
| Feature | ARCHER2 | JASMIN | BAS HPC |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | National HPC service for compute-intensive research | Data-intensive computing for climate/environmental science | BAS's internal HPC cluster |
| Permitted Use | ESPRC + NERC | NERC | BAS internal only |
| CPU | AMD EPYC 7742, 64-core Zen 2 processors | Various Intel Xeon CPUs | Various Intel Xeon CPUs |
| Number of Nodes | ~5860 total | ~300 total | ~20 total |
| Number of Cores | ~750,000 total | ~19,000 total | ~ 430 total |
| Memory per Node | 256 GB to 512 GB (standard nodes) | 256 GB to 1024 GB (depending on host group) | 512 GB |
ARCHER2
ARCHER2 is the National HPC service for compute-intensive research for ESPRC + NERC funded research. You can read more about its storage types and hardware specifications.
ARCHER2 is the most powerful HPC supported by WAVIhpc, and therefore well-suited to the most compute-intensive ensembles.
Recommended reading:
BAS HPC
The BAS HPC is BAS's internal HPC cluster. You can read more about the hardware specifications (BAS internal only).
While not as powerful as ARCHER2, this cluster is only open to other BAS users. It is well suited for day-to-day running and testing of ensembles, and internal use.
Recommended reading:
JASMIN
JASMIN is a data analysis facility for NERC funded research or related environmental science projects. It provides storage and compute. You can read more about its storage types, and hardware specifications.
JASMIN provides larger and more versatile storage, but ARCHER2 is a far more powerful computing facility. It is well suited for day-to-day running and testing of ensembles, high-memory runs or simply testing your ensembles on a different platform.
Recommended reading:
Run on ARCHER2, store on JASMIN
As you have read above, ARCHER2's compute is more powerful while JASMIN's storage is more versatile - you can choose to combine these, by following the Transfers from ARCHER2 documentation.