Quest

Quest is Northwestern University's large-scale, shared, high performance computing system providing University researchers with a clustered computing platform in support of research. The implementation of Quest is the first step in the University's multi-year high performance computing initiative to maintain Northwestern's reputation as a leading research institution.

Northwestern University Information Technology's role in expanding high performance research computing services for the University includes:

• Enabling advanced computational capability
• Providing a consistent user- interface for researcher access to the Quest cluster
• Cost-effective solution for computational research in a complex, heterogeneous environment
• Providing innovative research and instructional opportunities
• Building collaboration services for Northwestern's research community
• Developing a secure and reliable platform on which researchers can store critical research data

Primary Computational Assets

• Architecture: IBM iDataPlex
• Number of Nodes: 375
• Number of Cores: 3000
• Processor: Intel Nehalem E5520, 64-bit, 8M Cache, 2.26 GHz, 5.86 GT/s Intel® QPI, 1066Mhz FSB
• Memory: Per node (Per Core) 48GB's (6GB's), Type: DDR3
• Interconnect: Infiniband
• Parallel Filesystem: GPFS (120TB's)

Who Can Access?

Initially, a small group of CI's are utilizing Quest during the 2009 fall quarter as early adopters to test processes and procedures.

Quest will be available for use to the general research community beginning winter Quarter 2010.

University researchers and educators, including postdoctoral researchers, are eligible to equest an allocation of time on Quest as computational investigators (CI's) for the purpose of research or education.

University students and collaborators may also have access to Quest allocations at the request of the CI.

Account Request

To request an allocation of time on Quest for use beginning winter quarter 2010, CI's may submit an online application. Applications are reviewed by a newly formed high performance computing Applications and Allocations Committee.

Each approved allocation is typically awarded for a one year term, to be renewed annually. Computational investigators will be contacted directly to confirm application status.

Installation

NUIT has produced a video documentary to provide an inside look at the installation of Quest including commentary from Northwestern faculty and staff about its impact on research at the University.