Alps, a versatile research infrastructure

TL;DR

Alps is a flexible, modular HPC infrastructure that integrates heterogeneous hardware and software-defined clusters to support diverse scientific workloads and improve flexibility over traditional HPC systems.

Contribution

The paper introduces Alps, a novel HPC architecture with resource independence, software-defined clusters, and support for multiple scientific domains, enhancing flexibility and customization.

Findings

Supports diverse scientific workloads including weather prediction and AI.

Enables resource independence and flexible service creation.

Integrates heterogeneous hardware with high-performance networking.

Abstract

The Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS) has a long-standing tradition of delivering top-tier high-performance computing systems, exemplified by the Piz Daint supercomputer. However, the increasing diversity of scientific needs has exposed limitations in traditional vertically integrated HPC architectures, which often lack flexibility and composability. To address these challenges, CSCS developed Alps, a next-generation HPC infrastructure designed with a transformative principle: resources operate as independent endpoints within a high-speed network. This architecture enables the creation of independent tenant-specific and platform-specific services, tailored to diverse scientific requirements. Alps incorporates heterogeneous hardware, including CPUs and GPUs, interconnected by a high-performance Slingshot network, and offers a modular storage system. A key innovation is the versatile software-defined cluster (vCluster) technology, which bridges cloud and HPC paradigms. By abstracting infrastructure, service management, and user environments into distinct layers, vClusters allow for customized platforms that support diverse workloads. Current platforms on Alps serve various scientific domains, including numerical weather prediction, and AI research.