Note: This information was gathered by CFD software and service provider Resolved Analytics and shared on our website for the consumption of our audience, many of which work primarily in the CFD space.

CFD software is a processing tool used by engineers to analyze and solve problems involving fluid flows. CFD is used to simulate aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, weather analysis, heat transfer, engine combustion, etc. The more complex the problem, the more computational power needed to solve these problems. Open source software is available (OpenFOAM), however, licensed software (ANSYS Fluent, Siemens Star CCM+) offers more user-friendly interface, reliable simulation results, and support.

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) is the analysis of fluid flows using numerical solution methods. Using CFD, engineers analyze complex problems involving fluid-fluid, fluid-solid or fluid-gas interaction. Engineering fields where CFD analyses are frequently used are aerodynamics and hydrodynamics, where quantities such as lift and drag or field properties as pressures and velocities are obtained. Fluid dynamics is involved with physical laws in the form of partial differential equations. Sophisticated CFD solvers transform these laws into algebraical equations and efficiently solve these equations numerically.

Stages of CFD

Pre-processing

The first step in CFD modeling, which starts with describing the geometry of the object being worked with, usually imported from a CAD drawing. The process of creating the environment in which the object will be simulated is broken into smaller, more manageable segments, known as meshing. Meshing can be handled in different ways, but ultimately, creates the fluid conditions in which the object in question will be simulated in.

Solving

The second step is the solving of the problem, once the physics problem has been identified, the environment has been meshed, and boundary conditions set, the solver processes this information and proceeds to run all the calculations necessary to solve the problem. There are multiple solvers available, varying in efficiency and capability of solving certain physical phenomena. (ANSYS FLUENT, Star CCM+, CFD++, OpenFOAM)

Post-processing

Finally, the results are visualized and analyzed in the post processing phase. At this stage the results and conclusions can be drawn based on the results of the solver. Results are presented in many different forms: static or moving pictures, graphs or tables.

Ansys Fluent:

Pros: powerful, efficient and validated numerical methods, full suite of physics and multiphysics capabilities

Cons: requirement for standalone software for pre-processing (SpaceClaim, only supported on Windows OS) and superior post-processing (Ensight), cost

• Workflow: new “Watertight Workflow”, one only needs to use SpaceClaim (in place of Design Modeler) and then bring the geometry directly into Fluent for native meshing.
• Physics Modeling:
• If there is some sort of physics phenomena that isn’t built in and available, Fluent supports the use of user codes called UDF’s (User Defined Functions), which are fully customizable scripts that allow you to tap or “hook” into the flow variables in order to model the physics/behavior at each computational cell.
• new hybrid Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) to Discrete Phase Model (DPM) that is used for spray nozzle simulations.
• CAD Cleanup and Meshing: “Watertight Workflow”, This tree structure guides you from top to bottom as you import geometry, add meshing parameters, label boundaries and zones/regions, and create surface and volume meshes.
• Meshing:
• process is now straightforward, and the workflow guides the user though the remaining effort. the “preview” of the mesh size that allows the user to see how small/large the computation cells will be before anything is meshed. This can save a lot of time that could otherwise be wasted by meshing a geometry with too coarse or too fine of a grid.
• new Mosaic meshing technology, also called “poly-hexcore”, this mesh type is showing an improvement in total cell counts for similar (or boosted) accuracy when compared to polyhedral alone (which increases speed). Compared to the polyhedral mesh, the poly-hexcore mesh had ~10% fewer cells in total.
• improvement in meshing time from 3 minutes (on 4 cores) for the poly-hexcore compared to ~13.5 minutes for the corresponding all-polyhedra mesh. This speedup (~4.5x) could save major time for generating larger, more complex meshes.
• Simulation: Test cases available, allow the user to verify that the software performs according to documentation and to provide the user with confidence that it can adequately solve various physics problems within tolerable levels of accuracy.
• Post Processing: Ensight able to show both solid FEA model results as well as fluid CFD cases and can be quite impressive for analyzing and animating fluid-body-interaction data.

Siemens Star CCM+

Pros: powerful, efficient and validated numerical methods, full suite of physics and multiphysics capabilities, streamlined workflow and ease-of-use, post-processing

Cons: still looking 

• Interface: Users can access all pre-processing, simulation, and post-processing tasks within single interface.
• Physics Modeling: comes with a database of common materials in categories of solid, liquid, gas, and electrochemical species and a wide range of turbulence modeling options. A finite element solver has been added recently that allows basic solid mechanics modeling.
• Clean Up & Meshing: Makes the process of importing, repairing, defining and meshing your CAD parts about as painless as it can be. Overall mesh generation is handled well.
• Post Processing:
• STAR-CCM+ provides the most striking and intuitive flow visualization techniques among all leading CFD software packages and which are comparatively easy to use.
• Offers VR, opportunity to move around inside a simulation result which has the potential to provide more useful insight
• Offers screenplay, the animation recording is no longer constrained by a single visualization and, instead, visualizations can dynamically change throughout the recording.
• Simulation: STAR-Test, internal test system, the user has the opportunity to verify that the software received is able to reproduce the same results on the platform you are using (verification) while also providing an understanding of the accuracy to be expected when modeling specific physics use cases (validation). Only multiphysics simulation tool that has achieved ASME Nuclear Quality Assurance – 1 compliance.
• Summary: makes lives of engineers easier by providing a full-suite of multi-physics capabilities, a streamlined workflow within a modern java based interface, best-in-class meshing capabilities and insightful, meaningful and impressive post-processing without the prerequisite of obtaining a Ph. D. in programming.

OpenFOAM (Open Source)

Pros:

• Freely licensed, cost effective as user demand increases. Widely distributed, so its reliable and accurate as a result of being scrutinized and improved by large group of diverse developers, motivated to ensure code performs well.
• If user has the skill and desire, they can add to the functionality through additional coding.

Cons:

– steep learning curve

– limited user support

– increased cost of ownership relating to reduced usability

– lack of specialized capabilities

– requirement of additional software including pre and post processors.

5 General CFD Categories:

Open Source: OpenFOAM is the most widely used open source CFD software.

Pros:

– Freely licensed, cost effective as user demand increases. Widely distributed, so its reliable and accurate as a result of being scrutinized and improved by large group of diverse developers, motivated to ensure code performs well.

– If user has the skill and desire, they can add to the functionality through additional coding.

Cons:

– steep learning curve

– limited user support

– increased cost of ownership relating to reduced usability

– lack of specialized capabilities

– requirement of additional software including pre and post processors.

Open Source Wrappers: Open source software such as OpenFOAM, with friendly user GUI (Graphical User Interface) environments bundled in such as: Visual-CFD, HELYX and simFlow. SimScale (cloud, web browser-based simulation) offers convenience of single interface, but suffer from separation between user and the execution code.

• Pros: some convenience of full service commercial platform at much lower price
• Cons: same limitations of open source; i.e. limited user support, lack of specialized capabilities, while adding another layer of software with its own potential for bugs.

CAD (Computer Aided Drawing) Integrated: Most widely used are SolidWorks and AutoDesk Inventor, are CFD add-ons within 3-D solid modeling platforms. Marketed towards product designers seeking to solve steady-state, single phase, non-reacting flow problems, with focus on ease of use.

Specialty: specialized functionality.

• Converge is a multipurpose code, high sophistication in regards to moving meshes, multiphase flows and turbulent combustion as needed for focus in: automotive, internal combustion. (AVL Fire, also for automotive)
• 6sigma: for datacenter ventilation.
• EXA for aerodynamics
• CFX for turbo machinery
• New: EXN/Aero focus on improving performance on very large scale simulations through combined use of CPU and GPU processing, until purchased by JUUL e-cig maker.

Comprehensive Packages: Gold standard for CFD is ANSYS Fluent and Siemen Star-CCM+. Fluent seems to capture more market share in electronic and industrial product markets while Star-CCM+ in the aerospace, automotive and energy industries. Software such as COMSOL’s CFD Module and Altair’s AcuSolve are components of broader Multiphysics simulation platforms, now growing in scope and marketshare. Primary drawback of these packages is the cost.

• Capability to import complex 3D solid and surface geometries from diverse sources.
• All in one workflow, including pre-processing, solving and post-processing.
• Broad multi-physics simulation capabilities.
• Efficient data architectures, numerical methods and utilization of diverse hardware and software configurations.
• Vendor initiated verification and validation of physics and numerical methods.
• Limited requirements for user-coding and/or command line operations.

CAD embedded CFD:

CAD embedded into CFD software is touted as being a game changer, however, mostly overhyped. CAD software can easily be imported into CFD programs so there is no need to have them in the same interface.

CFD Applications

SolidWorks Flow Simulation: add on to SolidWorks CAD software, considered the “most CAD embedded” CFD program in its class.

Fluid volumes extracted for CFD analysis and boundary conditions needed for CFD simulation are linked directly to the native 3D CAD geometry surfaces eliminating the necessity of redefining the model setups when experimenting with simple CAD geometry changes.

Marketed as solution to “designers” working in industrial and electronics, those without experience in fluid dynamics, numerical analysis and CFD.

3D CAD cleanup and prep work is similar to that which you would find if exporting to a neutral file format for export to standalone CFD software.

Complicated, production-ready CAD models will need to simipified by suppressing details unnecessary to fluid-flow analysis, and combining common solids to eliminate unnecessary surface to surface interfaces.

The “check model” tool and “CAD cleanup” tool are useful as the can catch and repair some simple issues, but often require significant user intervention to troubleshoot problematic geometries and then repair in the native CAD environment.

Meshing in this program attempts to simplify the process by limiting user input, but ultimately results in average to poor quality, and is unable to benefit from multicore architectures.

Simulating in SolidWorks Flow uses a Finite Volume solver which has been found to be inefficient, compared to Finite Element methods. In a comparison, SolidWorks Flow required 4 – 100 times longer to perform simulation compared to ANSYS fluent while returning less accurate results (for lift and drag).

Autodesk CFD: Though not technically CAD embedded as it requires another application to launch from within the Inventor or Fusion 360 workspace.

Marketed toward industries serving electronics and architecture, given the other architecture related software that Autodesk has.

Convenient in that when CFD is launched form CAD program, it can push 3D models directly into CFD and automatically assigns settings from CAD so you can introduce new CAD design variations with ease. Can sometimes run into difficulties.

When importing CAD models directly into CFD, a toolkit can be activated to analyze the 3D model for model health, identifying: slivers, gaps and interfaces, but only identifies. Use needs to go back to original CAD program to make adjustments to CAD models.

Meshing is messy but possible.

Autodesk CFD is somewhat of outlier as it uses finite element solver, which results in less accurate and less efficient than finite volume solver. Autodesk CFD finite element solver is significantly slower than finite volume solvers.

ANSYS Discovery Live:  mesh less solver, similar to the Lattice Boltzman solvers, where GPU acceleration of coarse-lattice simulations can be run very quickly. This is how Hollywood studios have produced amazing life like fluid effects on large scales for years.

ANSYS is usually known for highly accurate, time consuming simulations. This was first release that made CFD most accessible where designers can seem immediate, real time impacts of design changes.

If ANSYS continues to improve upon this platform, it can result in solving fine lattice results, meaning more accurate real time results in unsteady flow environments, as opposed to highly calculated pre-preped environment that are planned in advance.

OpenFOAM: Common open source CFD solvers (besides OpenFOAM): SU2, Palabos, Fire Dynamics Simulator, MFIX.

Gained considerable credibility by growing user base: universities and corporations, Mercedes Benz, BASF, BMW, Volkswagen, Intel.

Coded in C++ instead of Fortran, to take advantage of object oriented abilities.

Linux based, or if running through Microsoft Windows, need to run through virtual machine. Or you can run Linux Bash Shell within windows. Or can run through a “containerized” environment, via Docker technology.

Strengths:

• Many capabilities and multiple solvers that can be applied to numerous types of flow problems
• Product has been developed and refined over 20 years, by experts specializing in solving CFD problems.
• Advantages of wide user base, tutorials, and example problems, as well as ability to customize the code base to user liking.
• Increased acceptance in academia and industry.
• FREE!!

Drawbacks:

• Steep learning curve, need for advanced user experience in determining what important physics to solve and how to best match those physics with numerical algorithms.
• Need for Linux based OS, or version for Windows that lacks native capabilities/utilities. Need knowledge of Linux commands for file manipulation.
• Lack of high performance built in meshing utility.
• Need to learn additional post-processing software package.
• Extra time required to setup and analyze model results due to disconnected work flow as compared to workflow optimized commercial software solutions that feature All-in-one packages for pre-processing, solve, post-processing.

COMSOL Multiphysics: Extremely user friendly, well designed GUI, limited capabilities.

originally partnered with US based Mathworks as European distributor of MATLAB, leading to developing their own software FEMLAB that expanded the capabilities MATLAB in solving partial differential equations.

Eventually they developed their own finite element based meshing and solving routines (FEMLAB).

In 2005, FEMLAB became known as COMSOL Multiphysics, utilizing GUI with MATLAB like programming interface.

Mainly marketed towards research in academia, more recently, COMSOL is attempting to make steps towards making it more useful to engineers.

HARDWARE RECOMMENDATIONS:

Main components to consider, in order of priority:

• RAM: Determines maximum model size (DOF, degrees of freedom) that can be solved.
• CPU: number of cores and clock speed determines how quickly a model can be solved. (Good metric to compare between CPU options is: Clock Speed x Number of Cores / Cost
• Storage: determines how much data can be held on the system, and how quickly it can be input/read.
• GPU: speed up complex solutions
• Interconnects: enables high speed clustering

Amid the injustices going on in our world, we believe it’s important to speak up for Black Americans everywhere. As an organization that actively condemns racism and oppression of people of color, we’d like to take this moment to call attention to the many trailblazing advancements made by Black Americans, particularly in the Information Technology space.

Technological advancements impact how we do everything – from how we pay our bills to how we access entertainment, which means that the exceptional accomplishments of those within the IT space have the ability to shape our world. Below is just a peek into the many Black Americans that have shaped our world for the better.

Jessica Matthews, Uncharted Power

At the ripe age of 22, Matthews created SOCCKET, a soccer ball that produced kinetic energy during play. This energy could be used to power a lamp, a call phone, any many other devices. Her invention allowed for African countries with limited access to electricity to still harness kinetic energy to power devices during sporadic blackouts.

Matthews now serves as CEO as Uncharted Power, “an energy and data technology firm that produces infrastructure solutions for communities, facilities, and the Internet of Things (IoT).” Uncharted Power has developed several kinetic energy-generating vehicles and more that serve major corporations and government entities located in African countries. Matthews work has catapulted the ability for many countries to access renewable energy. For this work and more, Matthews was named Black Enterprise Innovator of the Year in 2013.

Corey E. Thomas, Rapid7

Thomas holds the titles of President and CEO of Rapid7, which is a go-to for many companies looking to detect, deter and prevent cyberattacks. The platform ingests data from a company’s entire networking environment to allow for monitoring of potential weaknesses and threats. Thomas has successfully positioned Rapid7, and cybersecurity altogether, as something that companies need to prioritize, rather than allow to be an afterthought. Thomas has secured contracts for Rapid7’s cybersecurity services for major corporations, like Microsoft, Macy’s, Netflix, and many more.

Charley Moore, Rocket Lawyer

Moore, a former internet law and business attorney for a high-powered Silicon Valley law firm, noticed that many small businesses needed and desired legal advice from professionals, but lacked the budget to hire a lawyer. That’s when Moore created Rocket Lawyer, an online platform for those seeking affordable legal advice. They can help with pretty much any legal need, from creating legal documents, like non-disclosures, living wills, and lease agreements, to starting a business. Moore even had an “Ask a Lawyer” feature created that allows everyday users to get in contact with a lawyer when they have questions.

Moore’s work has transformed what it means to be a small business owner in the United States, allowing entrepreneurs access to the legal advice they need to establish, grow, and nurture their businesses.

Charles E. Phillips, Infor Inc.

Phillips serves as CEO of Infor Inc., a multi-national enterprise software company, headquartered in New York City, United States. He’s lead Infor Inc. to it’s most profitable state, doubling the company’s revenue to $2.7 billion since 2010.  This is the first major software company to offer an integrated, end-to-end application suite for entire industries – making them the true leaders in their space. Phillips has been named one of the Most Powerful Executives in Corporate America by Black Enterprise and has spent his professional years transforming technology companies into the powerhouses they are now.

This list could go one for miles, as there is no shortage of intelligent and hardworking Black Americans in our world. At PSSC Labs, we’re happy to celebrate the many accomplishments of Black Americans in the IT space, as their work, expertise, and intelligence dramatically shapes and betters our world each day.

Many organizations are adopting cloud-native approaches based on Kubernetes for application development to support digital transformation efforts and to accommodate the rapid development and deployment times needed to stay competitive today.

At the heart of most efforts is a micro-services architecture. As opposed to all-encompassing monolithic applications of old, modern applications are comprised of loosely coupled entities. Such an architecture allows great flexibility in that elements may be quickly added or updated without needing to rewrite or rework the entire application. For example, a financial services firm may enhance its fraud detection capabilities by adding an artificial intelligence-based real-time anomaly detection to existing practices.

Proof of the success of such an approach to application development and deployment is seen in the rapid adoption rate of containers, in general, and Kubernetes, in particular. Businesses are well beyond the experimental and investigative stages. An industry survey by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2019, 84% of respondents were using containers in production, a jump of more than 15% from 2018. The use of Kubernetes has surged in that time. In 2019, 78% of respondents were using Kubernetes in production, a huge jump from 58% the year before.

While most container deployments are on public cloud services, about 42% of businesses also are deploying containers on-premises and on private clouds. Two factors are driving the use of Kubernetes on-premises.

Driving Factors For the Use of On-Premise Kubernetes

First, Kubernetes helps on-premises data centers realize the benefits of cloud-native applications and infrastructure. Thus, a business can have a cloud-like environment that abstracts infrastructure away from the application stack. Just as is the case in a public cloud, this abstraction enables portability and the scalability that’s commonly associated with cloud-native applications.

Second, employing Kubernetes on-premises verses on a public cloud lets a business enforce security and data protection policies.

On-premises Solutions Options

Running container workloads comes down to hardware. Businesses need physical machines, with CPUs, memory, and local persistent storage. In addition, they need some shared persistent storage and networking element to hook up all the machines.

Kubernetes can be deployed on a bare-metal cluster or a cluster of virtual machines. Bare-metal instances are not as common. However, there are use cases where they offer advantages. For example, a network edge application might be too latency-sensitive to tolerate the overhead created by a VM. Or an application (such as machine learning) might need to run on GPUs or other hardware accelerators, which do not lend themselves to VMs.

A suitable system must be able to be dynamically provisioned by the users to handle different data workflows. Many businesses are looking for turnkey solutions that combine the needed processing, storage, memory, and interconnect technologies to provide either the bare metal or VM foundation for their container and microservices efforts.

Delivering such a solution requires expertise and real-world best practices across both HPC and container/Kubernetes domains, plus deep industry knowledge about the specific applications.

PSSC Labs has a more than 30 years history of delivering systems that meet the most demanding workloads across industries, government, and academia.

Its offerings include PowerServe Uniti Servers, which use the newest components from Intel^® , AMD^®  and Nvidia^®. These servers are ideal for a wide range of applications, including AI and deep learning, as well as for computational and data analysis.

PSSC Labs also offers CloudOOP Big Data Servers that deliver the highest level of performance in an enterprise server with the cost-effectiveness of direct attach storage for Big Data applications. The servers deliver 200+ MB/sec sustained IO speeds per hard drive (which is 30%+ faster than other OEMs.)

While containers and Kubernetes on public clouds make sense for development and application testing, the use of the technologies brings many benefits when run on-premises. Data centers gain the efficiencies of cloud-like operations. And businesses have more control over security for production applications. PSSC Labs systems for Kubernetes can help a business realize both benefits.

This term has been floating around the technology industry as of late, especially for organizations that desire to work with government agencies. The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template, or VPAT, is a self-disclosing document provided by the vendor that evaluates how accessible a particular product is according to Section 508 Standards. A VPAT details each aspect of the Section 508 requirements and how the product may support each criteria.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that agencies buy, build, and use Information and Communication Technology (ICT) that is accessible to people with disabilities, thus a company that wishes to do business with the Federal Government should test its ICT products or services offerings for accessibility based on the Section 508 technical standard, which can be found in the Accessibility Conformance Report.

Why was VPAT Created?

The Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) was developed by the IT Industry Council as a way for companies to display their accessibility conformance findings, standard by standard. When a government agency receives this report, it may proceed with the procurement by evaluating options available and specific exceptions that may apply based on their own use case. Until a report is received, the government may not legally proceed with the evaluation of the product.

 A completed VPAT is your company’s report of the accessibility of your product. Your company reads each technical standard and evaluates your product to see if the standard is either fully supported, is not supported, or is not applicable.

For us, having an Accessibility Conformance Report or completed VPAT for the PSSC Labs PowerWulf ZXR1+ HPC Cluster is extremely significant. The VPAT enables NASA or any other Federal Agency to adhere to the Code of Federal Regulations and promotes accessibility and use by all of that agency’s capable workforce, in addition to swift acquisition. As many companies have not completed a VPAT for their supercomputer products, this achievement makes PSSC Labs a leader in our field for accessibility.

About PSSC Labs

For technology powered visionaries with a passion for challenging the status quo, PSSC Labs is the answer for hand-crafted HPC and Big Data computing solutions that deliver relentless performance with the absolute lowest total cost of ownership. We are true innovators offering high performance computing solutions to solve the world’s most demanding problems. For 25+ years, organizations of all sizes and from a variety of sectors rely on PSSC Labs’ computing systems. We are proud to support many departments within the United States government, Fortune 500 companies, as well as small and medium-sized businesses.

All products are designed and built at the company’s headquarters in Lake Forest, California.

There is growing interest in some corners of the government to be more like Silicon Valley when acquiring and developing new computer systems. A recent New York Times article noted the high-level interest former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is getting to revamp America’s defense forces with more engineers, more software, and more artificial intelligence (AI).

The gist of Schmidt’s argument is that the government (and private industry for that matter) could get higher performance without proprietary restraints by applying Silicon Valley expertise when replacing and updating computer systems.

Many point to the benefits of using this approach. For more than a decade, Amazon, Facebook, and Google have built their data centers from scratch with non-proprietary solutions. They developed their own server hardware, stripping out all unnecessary features and functions. The goal has been and is to use systems that deliver the best performance per dollar.

These companies and others have taken a similar approach to software. They opted for open-source solutions or developed the software in-house. Certainly, the government and private businesses do not want to undertake expansive software development projects. Fortunately, much of the work done by these companies and others is available via open-source programs, including numerous projects from Amazon, Facebook, and Google.

In addition to traditional HPC hardware and software, Schmidt and others rightly point out how critical the adoption of AI is to improve services, retain competitive advantages, and deliver innovation. Mandates for AI start at the top with last year’s Executive Order announcing the American AI Initiative — the United States’ national strategy on artificial intelligence.

Here again, the big technology companies are opting for more cost-effective computing hardware and open-source software solutions rather than buying proprietary platforms. For example, Amazon, Facebook, and Google are building their AI solutions on the best available hardware, while also developing their own AI acceleration chips.

Why Wait?

Many high-level government initiatives will take years to develop new HPC purchasing strategies and have that reflected in purchasing mandates. That should not prevent government entities from adopting the approach on their own. This is an area where PSSC Labs can help.

We offer HPC, Big Data an AI systems using best of breed technology. Components, sub-systems, and software choices are made based on cost/performance factors, not because it is a particular vendor’s brand.

Using this approach, PSSC Labs systems are ideal for HPC applications and AI offering high performance, scalability, and lower total cost of ownership (TCO).  In additionl this prevents vendor “lock-in” which significantly increase cost while limiting growth options.

An example is our PowerWulf ZXR1+ HPC Clusters, which are application-optimized, scalable, and delivered production-ready. We’ve deployed more than 2,000 PowerWulf ZXR1+ HPC Clusters to a wide range of companies across 36 countries including many to government agencies such as NASA, US DOD, NIH, USDA, NOAA. They are used to support work in a wide range of applications, from bioinformatics to weather modeling. Systems are developed using elements selected to deliver the highest performance at cost for an organization’s specific compute requirements. Compared to a single vendor proprietary solution, the PowerWulf HPC clusters use best in breed components including:

• Intel^® and AMD^® CPUs
• Nvidia^® and AMD^® GPUs
• Intel Omnipath^® and Mellanox^® High Speed Network Interconnects
• High Performance Flash and NVME based Parallel Storage

Given the volumes of data that are now routinely analyzed in HPC and mainstream applications, storage becomes critical in any application. There also are PSSC Labs storage systems that take the same best performance for cost approach. For example, our Parallux High Performance Storage Clusters are cost-effective and highly-scalable to meet today’s HPC application storage requirements. They scale to tens of petabytes of capacity. They deliver extreme performance exceeding 20GB/sec sustained IO. And they are compatible with POSIX file systems, allowing organizations to leverage the rich POSIX ecosystem of utilities and tools.

Similar to the PowerWulf ZXR1+ HPC Clusters, Parallux High Performance Storage Clusters use best of breed elements to deliver high performance with costs in mind. The solutions are customized based on an organization’s workloads. Elements can include:

• High Performance Flash and NVME Storage Media or Traditional Spinning Hard Drives
• Intel Omnipath^® and Mellanox^® High Speed Network Interconnects
• Ceph, Gluster Parallel File Systems

All PSSC Labs solutions are tightly integrated and optimized. They are delivered as turnkey solutions with easy to use management systems.

The bottom line: Instead of waiting years for high-level mandates that dictate the use of systems that maximize performance at a lower TCO, there are options available today. As such, government departments, groups, and entities using such systems can embrace Silicon Valley methodologies and reap the benefits enabling new and better services, while being more responsive.