Cray XC Software to Feature HPC-Optimized Docker Capabilities

Cray has announced that it will provide a high-performance computing (HPC)-optimized Docker solution for the company’s Cray XC line of supercomputers this December. Additionally, they will also offer the new feature to Cray CS400, Cray XE and Cray XK platforms sometime in 2016. Earlier this year, four Cray customers announced the implementation of Seagate’s latest high performance computing storage technology.

Cray has announced that it will provide a high-performance computing (HPC)-optimized Docker solution for the company’s Cray XC line of supercomputers this December. Additionally, they will also offer the new feature to Cray CS400, Cray XE and Cray XK platforms sometime in 2016. Earlier this year, four Cray customers announced the implementation of Seagate’s latest high performance computing storage technology.

The Docker implementation will allow Cray’s customers to implement software containers that package an entire software stack, including application codes, shared libraries, base operating system files, user environment variables, dependencies and more. Cray adds they will be easily-deployable images that contain everything an application requires in order to run with increased efficiency across multiple platforms. They are specifically designed to provide better application portability and help to bring seamless functionality when running highly-scalable applications on advanced supercomputers.

In addition, the Docker container implementation for Cray XC customers will significantly expand the number of applications available all the while reducing the amount of time needed to get applications up and running on a supercomputer. Other advantages include streamlining workflows, reduced application porting, more predictable and consistent code behavior across platforms and operating systems, and improved time-to-results.

The Cray XC series of supercomputers are built to tackle the performance challenges of today’s most demanding HPC use cases. Special features of the Cray XC supercomputers include:

• The industry-leading Aries system interconnect
• A Dragonfly network topology that frees applications from locality constraints
• Optional DataWarp applications I/O flash SSD accelerator technology
• innovative cooling systems to lower customers’ total cost of ownership
• The next-generation of the scalable, high performance and tightly integrated Cray Linux Environment that supports a wide range of applications
• Cray’s HPC optimized programming environment for improved performance and programmability
• The ability to handle a wide variety of processor types, including Intel Xeon processors, Intel Xeon Phi coprocessors, and NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators

Cray XC series of supercomputers

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