Wrocław Centre for Networking and Supercomputing
Wrocław Centre for Networking and Supercomputing (pl. Wrocławskie Centrum Sieciowo-Superkomputerowe, or WCSS) is a center providing IT services for Lower Silesian Voivodeship region of Poland. WCSS has been founded in 1995 and is a part of Wrocław University of Technology. The main tasks of WCSS are exploitation and development of wide area network (Wrocław's Academic Computer Network), supercomputer and development network information technology services.
Wrocław's Academic Computer Network
Wrocław's Academic Computer Network (pl. Wrocławska Akademicka Sieć Komputerowa, or WASK) is the Lower Silesian wide area network connecting multiple local area networks from all around the region. It provides access to the Internet and supercomputers both national and worldwide, making it city's skeleton network.
There are several hundred LANs connected to the WASK, with overall more than 20 000 computers. WASK's network is connected to the PIONIER network, that is in turn connected to the European GEANT and other nationwide operators' networks, including Telekomunikacja Polska and TK Telekom.
Supercomputers
Supercomputers deployed at the WCSS are used, on daily basis, by hundreds of scientists. Most of computational tasks include chemistry, physics, mechanics and information technology. Main WCSS' supercomputers are:
- Nova, consisting of 328 computation nodes, of total 2016 cores, connected with InfiniBand and Gigabit Ethernet; theoretical computation power is 19 TFLOPS.
- SGI Altix 3700 Bx2 with 128 Intel Itanium 2 CPUs and 256 GB of RAM.
- SGI Tezro with 4 cores (interactive workstation).
User are provided with many computation software packages, including Gaussian, GAMESS, Accelrys, Sybyl, MOLPRO, MOLCAS, Abaqus, Matlab, MSC, and more.
Network services
Following network services are provided by WCSS:
- virtual WWW servers
- electronic mail with anti-virus and anti-spam scanning
- UseNet
- W3Cache
- DNS
- FTP
- XMPP (server: jabber.wroc.pl)
To provide these services Sun Microsystems Enterprise 4500, Fire V880, V280 and more are used.
Backups
WCSS backup systems consists of tape robot ADIC Scalar 10K (700 tapes of LT03 type), storage area network and disk arrays with Fiber Channel, SATA and PATA disks of total capacity of 500TB. Whole solution is managed with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager.
Projects
WCSS takes (or took) part of following national and international projects: