1. © 2006 IBM Corporation Jan Blommaart, IBM Netherlands. June 2006 The LOFAR Experience and its relevance to future radio astronomy projects Next Generation Correlators for Radio Astronomy and Geodesy

2. © 2006 IBM Corporation 2 IBM BlueGene/L in Groningen for LOFAR LOFAR network

3. © 2006 IBM Corporation 3 ASTRON and IBM have developed a partnership that started with the LOFAR project  We have delivered the BlueGene platform for correlator functions and filters.  We have started a lot of discussions and we have developed ideas on other projects like SKADS, SKA, JIVE…..  Radio astronomy is still relative new to IBM: we need your extreme requirements to push the limits

4. © 2006 IBM Corporation 4 It all started in May 2002  May 2002, first contacts between ASTRON and IBM  2002/2003, in depth meetings every 2 months, focus on application and requirements  September 2003, workshop at IBM Research, discuss BlueGene as a potential solution  November 2003, Dutch government agrees on grant for LOFAR (BSIK)  February 2004, agreement between ASTRON and IBM (SIGN)  April 2005, inauguration of LOFAR BlueGene/L system (STELLA)  June 2006, all specs achieved(?), still need final proof from ASTRON/LOFAR test group  2007/2008, LOFAR / BlueGene, EoR and …. ? 2003 2004 2005 2002 2006 start Last (?) techn. I/O problem solved IBM Research Req. Analysis BSIK  Conclusion: We learned that these projects take time…..(and you already knew) SIGN STELLA Application development and testing

5. © 2006 IBM Corporation 5 Bipolar to CMOS transition 100 Pflops for low-bit operations? SKA Low power design

6. © 2006 IBM Corporation 6 IBM E&TS, IBM Research Supercomputer Power Efficiencies Focus on aggregate performance by using more chips with much less power for each Focus on single thread performance and peak speed, not power consumption

7. © 2006 IBM Corporation 7 There is an energy crisis now!

8. © 2006 IBM Corporation 8 The overall cost per performance must be an important factor for very large radio astronomy systems

9. © 2006 IBM Corporation 9 The overall increase of performance depends on many factors, that need to be discussed all

10. © 2006 IBM Corporation 10 The access to memory is a major constraint, it will get worse!

11. © 2006 IBM Corporation 11 The access to memory is a major constraint, it will get worse (cont’d)!

12. © 2006 IBM Corporation 12 Radio Astronomy will need to use parallel processing to the xtreme, Moore’s law alone will not help!.  Here is why?  So prepare and start now!

13. © 2006 IBM Corporation 13 So what did we learn:  Focus on requirements first: –Functional (application level) Ops rate, Flops rate, External I/O, Internal I/O –Non-functional. Power consumption, Power dissipation, Power density, Availability,, Maintenance,Software environment  Then discuss potential platforms/solutions  What might be done even better: –Simulations, cannot start early enough –Do not underestimate the size of the I/O problem… –Test, test, test, test

14. © 2006 IBM Corporation 14 IBM would like to extend the partnership that started with the LOFAR project….  We have delivered the BlueGene platform for correlator functions and filters.  We have started a lot of discussions and we have developed ideas on other projects like SKADS, SKA, JIVE…..  Radio astronomy is still relative new to IBM: we need your extreme requirements to push the limits  Next generation correlator……?