Facilities and Networking
The Scientific Computing and Visualization (SCV) group, within Information Services & Technology at BU, provides resources and services for high-performance computing and visualization in support of research that has specialized or highly intensive computation, bandwidth, storage, or graphics requirements. Typical applications include scientific and engineering simulation, data analysis, visualization, and graphic arts.
Resources provided by SCV include:
- High-performance parallel computing systems and networks
- Scientific code parallelization and optimization
- Scientific programming and visualization consulting
- Scientific data visualization
- Interactive 3D graphics and virtual environments
- Training
SCV computing facilities include a massively parallel IBM BlueGene/L system, large shared-memory IBM p655 systems, and Linux clusters incorporating high-speed interconnects. In addition to computational resources, SCV offers a large IBM GPFS high-performance storage system.
SCV offers several models of shared services to centrally support research computing on the University campus, as well as in the upcoming MGHPCC facility. These service models, which include shared, buy-in/coop, dedicated, and co-located systems, provide researchers with a full spectrum of computing options ranging from university-wide, fully-shared resources to dedicated, individually owned and operated machines. In most case the systems are centrally managed by SCV staff; in all cases the physical infrastructure – space, power, cooling, and core networking – is provided by the University without charge-back to individual researchers or departments.
Resources are managed in collaboration with the BU Center for Computational Science, an interdisciplinary center promoting computational science research and education, and with oversight from the University’s Research Computing Governance Committee.
