As part of the Dies academicus of the University of Bonn on May 15, 2024, interested participants had the rare opportunity to take a look behind the scenes and the usually closed doors of the ultra-modern high-performance computer "Marvin". The supercomputer, which was ranked among the top 500 fastest computers in the world with its impressive computing capacity at its official inauguration in autumn 2023, has been in operation since March 2024 and has been available for use by all members of the university ever since.
The guided tour of the "Marvin" machine room offered participants at Dies academicus the opportunity to learn more about the technical details and the wide range of applications of the high-performance computer. Interested parties were able to get an idea of the impressive technology on site and ask questions directly to the experts in charge.
Technical insights and infrastructure
The high-performance computer "Marvin" has around 300 computing nodes, some of which are equipped with powerful NVIDIA GPUs and some with Intel CPUs. The University IT and Data Center (HRZ) of the University of Bonn is responsible for the installation and operation of the system, but due to its enormous size and the special requirements of the system, "Marvin" was housed in the premises of the Institute of Numeric Simulation (INS), as the HRZ itself did not have sufficient space. The HPC/A-Lab is the central point of contact for HPC-related research projects.
The tour was conducted by Jan Steiner, HPC team member at the University IT and Data Center. A particular focus of the tour was on the power and cooling requirements of "Marvin". Operating such a powerful supercomputer not only requires an enormous power supply, but also an extensive cooling system to efficiently dissipate the heat generated and maximize system performance.
Interdisciplinary use and access
"Marvin" is an essential part of the University of Bonn's research infrastructure and is already being used intensively by numerous departments. Researchers from all disciplines and students have the opportunity to apply for access to "Marvin" and use its computing power for their scientific projects.
Would you also like to apply for access to the HPC cluster?
Further information is available on the HPC and HPC/A-Lab website: hpc.uni-bonn.de