Moscow, January 27, 2012. — RSC Group, Russia's and CIS leading full-cycle developer and integrator of next-generation supercomputing solutions based on Intel architecture and advanced liquid cooling, summarized the results of 2011 and outlined the prospects for its business development. During the last year the RSC Group's aggregate turnover grew more than 1.5 times.
To further develop its business, ensure better agility in serving its clients and strengthen its expertise in key areas, in June 2011 RSC completed formation of RSC Group. Currently RSC Group includes the following companies:
RSC Technologies, technology and Russian know-how developer in the area of supercomputing solutions with the full cycle of R&D, pilot equipment production and organization of batch manufacturing to create out-of-the box solutions and projects;
RSC Soft, the developer of a complete software solution stack for increased effectiveness and usability of supercomputer systems ranging from system software to vertically oriented and cloud computing based platforms;
RSC SKIF, Russia’s and CIS leading full-cycle integrator of next-generation supercomputing solutions including turn-key development and installation of data centers;
RSC Systems, a company focused on providing after-sales support and maintenance services for supercomputing solutions and data centers;
RCS Design, an R&D company that develops prospective technologies and is a candidate for the status of Russia’s Skolkovo Innovation Center resident (the application has been accepted and is in the finalization process).
"Тhe new business structure as a group of companies gives us the ability to effectively respond to market requirements in this dynamic segment", explained Alexey Shmelev, Chief Operations Officer at RCS Group.
Growing number of clients and projects
In 2011, RSC Group continued to work with its largest client, South Ural State University (SUSU, Russia, Chelyabinsk) and implemented a number of projects for the new clients. Most valuable of them are the Russian Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring (Roshydromet), the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT), North East Federal University (NEFU, Russia, the Republic of Sakha, Yakutsk) and Main Road|Post studio (creation of visual effects for movie industry).
RSC Group's largest supercomputing project has been implemented in SUSU, which has the status of Research and Science University (RSU) in Russia. RSC created a supercomputer with the performance of 117 TFLOPS (trillion operations per second) on the basis of Intel® Xeon® processors for the university. This supercomputer stably occupies the 3rd position in Top50 rating of most powerful HPC systems in Russia and CIS countries (twice since March, 2011), as well as the 121st position in the worldwide rating Top500 in November 2011 (the highest position in the rating is 87th, achieved in June 2011). According to Green500 world rating, it is the most energy efficient supercomputer in Russia and CIS countries (as of November, 2011). SUSU Supercomputer Center already completed more than 250 projects to perform scientific research and solve important tasks in industrial, economical and educational areas. Additionally, since May 2011 RSC started implementing an in-house cloud computing based educational platform for SUSU, Russia’s biggest university (more than 55,000 students) in order to increase the quality and effectiveness of learning process.
Installation and further modernization of an energy efficient cluster on the basis of innovative RSC Tornado architecture and Intel® Xeon® processors more than doubled the computing power of Roshydromet’s Main Computing Center. Currently this supercomputer being used by Roshydromet to further develop operational technologies in order to improve accuracy, shorten the lead time and increase refinement of weather forecasts is upgrading to achieve the performance of 35 TFLOPS.
RSC Group specialists installed Russia’s largest computing cluster on the basis of Intel® Xeon® processors to be used to solve tasks in biomedicine, pharmacology and small-scale structures being solved by the specialists of I-SCALARE Laboratory in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The laboratory has been created as a part of Russian government grant in MIPT and led by Vladimir Pentkovski, a globally renowned scientist and an employee of Intel Corporation. After completion of the current 2nd stage of the project the system performance will reach 41.5 TFLOPS in the near future.
The North East Federal University (more than 22,000 students) has chosen a cloud computing based educational platform called Universum (developed by RSC Group) in order to increase the quality and effectiveness of learning process. This new project is implementing by RSC since late 2011.
Main Road|Post studio, widely known in the Russian movie industry, created and implemented visual effects for new movie "August, 8th" (film director - Dzhanic Faiziyev), already called by experts one of the most VFX-intensive and technically advanced movies in the Russian motion-picture industry during last five years. RSC Group’s specialists completed supply, installation and configuration of servers based on Intel® Xeon® 5680 processors used to model and calculate visual effects for this movie. The release of the movie in is slated for February 21, 2012.
Developments and achievements
The most significant event for RSC Group in terms of technology is introduction of the innovative energy efficient architecture RSC Tornado. The specialists of the Russian company were world’s first to develop advanced liquid cooling for widely available Intel® Xeon® based standard server boards (by various manufacturers) processors initially designed for traditional systems with air cooling of electronic components. This is the second generation of RSC’s energy-efficient supercomputer and cloud computing solutions, which was already implemented during implementation of projects in SUSU, Roshydromet and MIPT.
Among unique features of RSC Tornado and solutions based on the architecture there are the following:
• High energy efficiency. The system has an industry-record Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of less than 1.06 (this is the ratio of total power consumption vs. power consumption of electronic components). This means that maximum 5.7% of the consumed energy will be used for cooling of the system;
• High computing effectiveness ratio – more than 92 % for Intel® Xeon® 5680 processors in LINPACK benchmark (Turbo Boost mode is always on);
• Possibility to use Intel’s best-performing server processors with heat dissipation of 135 W:
– the real clock speed for Intel® Xeon® Х5680 processors (3.33 GHz, 130 W) is 133 MHz higher — up to 3.46 GHz;
– the clock speed gain for a new server processor codenamed Sandy Bridge not yet introduced by Intel is expected to be even higher;
• Computing power of more than 47.5 TFLOPS per rack based on Intel x86 architecture;
• High density — 74 TFLOPS per square meter.
The logical result is that RSC supercomputer is the most energy efficient Russian system in Green500 world rating.
Additionally, RSC specialists have created and continue working on the development of an integrated software stack for High Performance Computing (НРС).
Another important milestone in development of RSC software solutions is creation of Universum cloud computing based educational platform, which is already started to be integrated in the learning process in SUSU and NEFU.
Contribution in HPC market ecosystem development
RSC Group traditionally continues to sponsor Russia’s and CIS leading high performance computing industry conferences — “Parallel Computing Technologies” (PaCT) and “Scientific Service in the Internet” in Abrau-Durso, among others.
Additionally, in 2011 RSC Group actively supported “The Computing Continuum: from an Idea to Implementation”, an application development and research contest in the area of computing technologies organized by Intel Corporation and Russia’s Skolkovo Innovation Center Development Fund. RSC’s special prizes in the amount of RUB 75,000 were awarded for the following works in the area of HPC:
• “Using supercomputer technologies for effective investment”, South Ural State University;
• “UTPCS task batch processing system”, Multiagency Supercomputer Center (MSC) at Russian Academy of Science (RAS).
Admittance of RSC as a full member of European HPC association PROSPECT (http://www.prospect-hpc.eu/members/) is the evidence of appreciation and recognition on a reputable international level of the Russian company’s innovative developments and advanced solutions capable to facilitate a more active growth of the high performance computing industry and projects not only in Russia and CIS, but in Europe also.
Business development prospects
RSC Group management defines the following prospective business development areas:
• Significantly growing number of clients for solutions based on RSC Tornado architecture;
• Entering into new market segments due to the unique characteristics and features of RSC solutions. Various projects for the public sector and industry are being discussed.
• Global recognition and interest towards RSC Group developments and solutions is growing. Negotiations are ongoing with regard to potential international projects.
Development of technologies and solutions
RSC Group’s business is based on innovative technologies and market leading solutions for the effective completion of client tasks. In this respect, RSC’s specialists are going forward for the following developments:
• Further improvement of architecture and development of solutions as a part of RSC Tornado concept;
• Support of new devices (e.g. Intel MIC accelerators);
• Creation of an integrated hardware and software solution for private clouds.
Summarizing all the results achieved by the group of companies in 2011, Alexey Shmelev said: “RSC moved to a new level of business development by becoming both a leading player on the Russian and CIS HPC markets and a world class trend setter in energy efficient technologies and solutions for high performance computing. We intend to further follow the way of innovation with clear understanding of market trends and requirements".
