Belarus and Russia have created a line of allied world-class supercomputers
29.11.2022
Modern technologies are created using powerful supercomputers. Without their ability to perform trillions of operations per second, it is impossible to develop an airplane or medicine, or make a reliable weather forecast... And the Union State was ready to make such a technological breakthrough. Supercomputers created by Belarusian and Russian scientists according to its scientific and technical programs entered the top of the best world developments, pushing aside the achievements of colleagues from the USA, Japan, and China. Today, scientists from the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus have a whole line of various supercomputers and software, these complexes are successfully used in various industries.
At the same time, as in the rest of the world, foreign electronic microelements are used - it is cheaper. However, the economic sanctions of the West against Belarus and Russia may become an obstacle to obtaining such components. And this is directly related to ensuring information security, which in the current circumstances cannot be discounted. How will the allied countries respond to the challenge? To find the answer to this question, the SOYUZ correspondent went to the United Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which is the main executor of supercomputer programs of the Union State.
It was here that the first Soviet supercomputer "SKIF" was created, which, by the way, after renovation, is still successfully operating today. These are several cabinets with electronic cells, consuming a considerable amount of kilowatts of energy and occupying an entire room, which is a lot by today's standards. However, in the next office you can see a new generation of machines, outwardly not much different from ordinary desktop office computers.
— The National Scientific and Educational GRID Network has been created and is operating on the basis of SKIF family supercomputers, and we are its operator, — explains the Institute’s General Director, Doctor of Sciences Sergey Kruglikov. — The machines themselves are installed in the republican supercomputer center for collective use, which also operates with us. On them, we solve specific industry and inter-industry problems of the highest possible accuracy and complexity in the interests of customers. Thus, our newest installation has 1742 cores for parallel computing with a total performance of over 100 Tflops. For a number of industrial enterprises and healthcare organizations, and universities, we have manufactured compact so-called office supercomputer solutions.
Such equipment processes seismic exploration data and models various geological processes. For example, the Belaruskali association forecasts rock collapses, which increases production safety. An intelligent telemedicine system for doctors is being created. A supercomputer helps them see the beginnings of new growths on an X-ray or CT scan that are invisible to the naked eye. At the Belarusian State Technological University and the Belarusian-Russian University, high-speed machines have allowed the training of future engineering specialists to be raised to a higher technological level.
— All calculations are performed on our installations using domestic programs, — specifies Sergey Kruglikov. — We managed to make the machines compact and energy-efficient thanks to the built-in cooling system based on heat-dissipating tubes developed by colleagues from the Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
At the same time, as in the rest of the world, foreign electronic microelements are used - it is cheaper. However, the economic sanctions of the West against Belarus and Russia may become an obstacle to obtaining such components. And this is directly related to ensuring information security, which in the current circumstances cannot be discounted. How will the allied countries respond to the challenge? To find the answer to this question, the SOYUZ correspondent went to the United Institute of Informatics Problems of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, which is the main executor of supercomputer programs of the Union State.
It was here that the first Soviet supercomputer "SKIF" was created, which, by the way, after renovation, is still successfully operating today. These are several cabinets with electronic cells, consuming a considerable amount of kilowatts of energy and occupying an entire room, which is a lot by today's standards. However, in the next office you can see a new generation of machines, outwardly not much different from ordinary desktop office computers.
— The National Scientific and Educational GRID Network has been created and is operating on the basis of SKIF family supercomputers, and we are its operator, — explains the Institute’s General Director, Doctor of Sciences Sergey Kruglikov. — The machines themselves are installed in the republican supercomputer center for collective use, which also operates with us. On them, we solve specific industry and inter-industry problems of the highest possible accuracy and complexity in the interests of customers. Thus, our newest installation has 1742 cores for parallel computing with a total performance of over 100 Tflops. For a number of industrial enterprises and healthcare organizations, and universities, we have manufactured compact so-called office supercomputer solutions.
Such equipment processes seismic exploration data and models various geological processes. For example, the Belaruskali association forecasts rock collapses, which increases production safety. An intelligent telemedicine system for doctors is being created. A supercomputer helps them see the beginnings of new growths on an X-ray or CT scan that are invisible to the naked eye. At the Belarusian State Technological University and the Belarusian-Russian University, high-speed machines have allowed the training of future engineering specialists to be raised to a higher technological level.
— All calculations are performed on our installations using domestic programs, — specifies Sergey Kruglikov. — We managed to make the machines compact and energy-efficient thanks to the built-in cooling system based on heat-dissipating tubes developed by colleagues from the Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus.
— We rely on the achievements of our Russian colleagues who have domestic processors such as Elbrus and Baikal, and we test them, — continues Sergey Kruglikov. — Even if they are inferior to the best world models in some ways, it is already possible to create computing installations. And the production base has not been lost, I will name at least the Minsk JSC Integral, enterprises of the Russian Zelenograd. We are developing microelectronic components for future supercomputers, our textbooks on logical design are in demand abroad. Our related companies at the Institute of Physics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus have a good laser base, and a chain of the latest microelectronic products is also being created at the Minsk Research Institute of Radio Materials. We discussed these issues with colleagues from the A.K. Ailamazyan Institute of Software Systems of the Russian Academy of Sciences and came to the conclusion: it is possible to create a completely domestic supercomputer.
Source: SOYUZ newspaper