Handbook of European HPC projects

SAGE 2

Percipient Storage for Exascale Data Centric Computing2

OBJECTIVE 

The landscape for High Performance Computing is changing with the proliferation of enormous volumes of data created by scientific instruments and sensors, in addition to data from simulations. This data needs to be stored, processed and analysed, and existing storage system technologies in the realm of extreme computing need to be adapted to achieve reasonable efficiency in achieving higher scientific throughput. 

We started on the journey to address this problem with the SAGE project. The HPC use cases and the technology ecosystem is now further evolving and there are new requirements and innovations that are brought to the forefront. It is extremely critical to ad-dress them today without “reinventing the wheel” leveraging existing initiatives and know-how to build the pieces of the Exascale puzzle as quickly and efficiently as we can. 

The SAGE paradigm already provides a basic framework to address the extreme scale data aspects of High Performance Computing on the path to Exascale. Sage2 (Percipient StorAGe for Exascale Data Centric Computing 2) intends to validate a next generation storage system building on top of the already existing SAGE platform to address new use case requirements in the areas of extreme scale computing scientific workflows and AI/deep learning leveraging the latest developments in storage infrastructure software and storage technology ecosystem. 

Sage2 aims to provide significantly enhanced scientific throughput, improved scalability, and, time & energy to solution for the use cases at scale. Sage2 will also dramatically increase the productivity of developers and users of these systems. 

Sage2 will provide a highly performant and resilient, QoS capable multi-tiered storage system, with data layouts across the tiers managed by the Mero Object Store, which is capable of handling in-transit/in-situ processing of data within the storage system, accessible through the Clovis API. 

The 3-rack prototype system is now available for use at Jülich Supercomputing Centre.

PROJECT’S CONTACT:

Sai Narasimhamurthy

Transition to Exascale Computing

Call:
FETHPC-02-2017

Coordinating Organization:
Seagate Systems UK Ltd, United Kingdom

Project Timespan
2018-09-01 – 2021-11-30

Other Partners:
  • Atos (Bull SAS), France
  • CEA – Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives, France
  • United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority, United Kingdom
  • KTH – Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Sweden
  • FZJ – Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Germany
  • EPCC – The University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom
  • Kitware SAS, France
  • Arm Ltd, United Kingdom