The Compusys Pilot Cluster is based on Intel Xeon Processor architecture, and uses an Ethernet interconnect for communications. It is used to conduct complex calculations and simulations that reveal the interactions between molecules in liquid and changes that occur when the concentration and the temperature vary.
“The aim of this work is to improve the understanding of how nucleation and crystallisation processes take place on a molecular level and hence allow a better control of them” explains Dr Elena Ferrari, Research Associate of the Department of Engineering.
“Many industries use crystallisation as purification or extraction process, for example pharmaceutical and food companies. Our work is vital to them and its critical that we have the right research tools” adds Elena.
“For this particular complexity of project, we needed a more powerful computer than we currently had, but I wasn’t prepared to invest the money we had in another high end workstation. That would've left me with very little for my money and the costly headache of maintenance and support” Elena explains.
“Compusys was recommended to me by a colleague who had previously bought a cluster solution and was very impressed with its performance and the service and support provided. I explained to Compusys exactly what it was I was trying to achieve and that not all the programmes I use are designed to run on a parallel system. They took it all on board and tailored a solution to meet my needs.
I have actually got 10 processors for the same price as I would have paid for two if I had bought a high end workstation. This means I can run 10 separate jobs simultaneously.
I haven’t pushed the cluster to it’s optimum performance yet because I am still learning how to use it, but already I am able to complete jobs in just one week, that would have historically taken me a month. I am extremely happy with its performance so far.
I’m in safe hands with Compusys because I know if anything goes wrong they can simply log in remotely and fix the problem. You can’t get much better than that. |