Overview

The Center for Computational Astrophysics at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has introduced the HPE Cray XD2000 system as a new supercomputer to replace the current dedicated astronomy supercomputer "ATERUI II." The operation of the new system began on December 2, 2024, at NAOJ Mizusawa Campus in Oshu City, Iwate Prefecture. The new system has been nicknamed NS-06 "ATERUI III," inheriting the name from its predecessor.

ATERUI III has a total theoretical peak performance of 1.99 petaflops ^(note) and consists of two types of subsystems: "System M," which emphasizes memory bandwidth (3.2 TB/s per node, 12.5 times that of ATERUI II), and "System P," which emphasizes memory capacity (512 GB per node, 1.3 times that of ATERUI II). By utilizing these two systems, which excel in different types of calculations, ATERUI III is expected to achieve faster computation speeds than ATERUI II for various simulations. It is anticipated to further serve as a "laboratory for theoretical astronomy" to investigate a wide range of astrophysical phenomena. (December 2, 2024)

(note) Flops (floating-point operations per second) is a unit of computational speed. One petaflops means the capability to perform one quadrillion operations per second.

Figure 1: The new supercomputer for astronomy “ATERUI III.” (Credit: NAOJ)
Download: [JPG (21.13 MB)]

Basic specifications of ATERUI III

	ATERUI III (total)	ATERUI III (System M)	ATERUI III (System P)	ATERUI II (2018.6-2024.8)
Theoretical Peak Performance	1.99 Pflops	1.4 Pflops (6.8 Tflops)	0.57 Pflops (7.168 Tflops)	3.087 Pflops
CPU		Intel® Xeon® CPU Max 9480	Intel® Xeon® Platinum 8480+	Intel® Xeon® Gold 6148
Core number	32,256	23,296 (112)	8,960 (112)	40,200
Node number	288	208	80	1,005
Memory bandwidth		665 TB/s (3200 GB/s)	98.24 TB/s (614 GB/s)	257.28 TB/s (256 GB/s)
Memory		26.6 TB (128 GB)	40.96 TB (512 GB)	385.9 TB (384 GB)

※ The numbers in brackets are the specifications per node.

Images

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ATERUI III Pictures
Photograph by Shogo Nagayama, Makoto Shizugami and Hinako Fukushi
Credit: NAOJ

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Simulation Examples of ATERUI II
[Formation of molecular clouds]

Figure s1:The results of simulations performed with ATERUI III, showing the series of processes in which dense gas clouds, known as molecular clouds, are formed in the extreme cold (minus 263℃) environment of star formation. The molecular cloud shown in the middle panel (density structure. the whiter the color, the denser the gas) grows by accumulating atomic gas with significant temperature variations (left panel: temperature distribution. the redder the color, the hotter the gas). The molecular cloud is filled with elongated fine structures, and stars are born within these slender structures (right panel: magnified view of the middle panel). Due to the improved application performance of ATERUI III (System M), calculations can now be performed at nearly twice the speed of ATERUI II. (Simulation: Kazunari Iwasaki, Credit: NAOJ)
Download: [PNG (1.81 MB)]

[Collision or molecular clouds]

Figure s2: Merger of molecular cloud cores in strongly magnetized molecular filaments. Molecular cloud cores are cradles of star and planet formation. The XD2000 finished the simulation in about half the time it would have taken the XC50. The lines represent the magnetic field lines and the contours represent the isodensity surface contours. This is the first computational investigation of molecular cloud core mergers in a turbulent molecular filament permeated by a strong magnetic field. Previous studies have shown that it is difficult to form multiple stars in a single molecular cloud core. The merger of the cores as shown in the figure could contribute to the formation of the multiple stars, even if the parental cloud has a strong magnetic field. In addition, it is expected that the mass accretion onto the star and circumstellar disk which is the birthplace of planets become intermittent. This scenario might change the current picture in which the planets form in an isolated disk. (Simulation: Yoshiaki Misugi, Credit: Yoshiaki Misugi)
Download: [JPG (314.35 KB)]