San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) Company Profile

Background

Established on November 14, 1985, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) is a pioneering institution in high-performance and data-intensive computing. Located at the University of California, San Diego (UC San Diego), SDSC's mission is to transform research, education, and practice through advanced cyberinfrastructure. The center provides resources, services, and expertise to the national research community, including academia, industry, and government sectors. Over the past 35 years, SDSC has been instrumental in advancing scientific inquiry and discovery across various disciplines, such as earth sciences, biology, astrophysics, bioinformatics, and health information technology.

Key Strategic Focus

SDSC's strategic focus encompasses several core objectives:

High-Performance Computing (HPC): Operating state-of-the-art supercomputing resources like Expanse and Voyager to support complex computational tasks.

Data-Intensive Computing: Managing and analyzing large-scale datasets to facilitate data-driven research.

Cyberinfrastructure Development: Building integrated networks of computing resources to accelerate scientific discovery.

Multidisciplinary Collaboration: Supporting a wide range of scientific domains by providing computational resources and expertise.

Industry Engagement: Partnering with industry leaders to enhance computational capabilities and applications.

SDSC targets primary markets in academia, government research institutions, and industry sectors requiring advanced computational resources. The center's specialization in HPC and data management positions it as a critical resource for researchers tackling complex scientific challenges.

Financials and Funding

SDSC operates as an organized research unit within UC San Diego, primarily funded through grants and partnerships. In 2019, the National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded SDSC a five-year, $10 million grant to develop and deploy the Expanse supercomputer. This funding supports the acquisition of hardware and ongoing operations, enabling SDSC to provide cutting-edge computational resources to the research community.

Pipeline Development

SDSC's key projects and resources include:

Expanse Supercomputer: Launched in December 2020, Expanse is designed to support diverse computational and data-intensive workloads. It comprises nearly 800 AMD EPYC-based compute nodes, delivering a peak performance of up to five petaflops. Expanse serves as a critical resource within the NSF's Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE).

Voyager Supercomputer: Scheduled to enter service in the fall of 2021, Voyager is an experimental system dedicated to advancing artificial intelligence (AI) research. It integrates Habana Labs' AI training and inference accelerators to provide high-performance AI compute capabilities.

These resources are integral to SDSC's mission to support multidisciplinary research and innovation.

Technological Platform and Innovation

SDSC distinguishes itself through several proprietary technologies and methodologies:

Rocks Cluster Computing Environment: A software stack developed by SDSC to facilitate the deployment and management of HPC clusters.

Storage Resource Broker (SRB): A data management system that enables users to access and manage distributed data as a single, unified resource.

Performance Modeling and Characterization (PMaC) Laboratory: Focuses on predicting and understanding factors affecting HPC performance, contributing to the optimization of computational resources.

These innovations underscore SDSC's commitment to advancing computational science and supporting complex research endeavors.

Leadership Team

SDSC's leadership comprises experienced professionals dedicated to advancing the center's mission:

Frank Würthwein, Ph.D. serves as the Director of SDSC. He is a UC San Diego physics professor and a founding faculty member of the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute. Würthwein assumed the role in July 2021, succeeding Michael L. Norman, who had been the director since September 2010.

Ilkay Altintas, Ph.D. is the Chief Data Science Officer, specializing in scientific workflows, big data applications, distributed computing, and reproducible science.

Kimberly Claffy, Ph.D. is a Senior Research Scientist with expertise in internet measurement infrastructure, data collection, and privacy-respecting data sharing.

Amit Majumdar, Ph.D. serves as the Division Director, focusing on parallel algorithm development, code profiling, tuning and optimization, and analysis of scientific applications on HPC architectures.

Leadership Changes

In July 2021, Frank Würthwein, Ph.D., assumed the role of Director at SDSC, succeeding Michael L. Norman, who had served as director since September 2010. Würthwein brings extensive experience in physics and data science, positioning SDSC for continued growth and innovation.

Competitor Profile

Market Insights and Dynamics

The high-performance computing (HPC) market is characterized by rapid technological advancements and increasing demand for computational resources across various scientific and industrial domains. Key trends include the integration of AI and machine learning capabilities, the expansion of cloud-based HPC services, and the development of exascale computing systems.