These literally were the latest and greatest CPU’s ever to hit this planet (at that moment in time). I knew the specifications on the CPU’s in this HPC cluster and the likelihood that they were the issue of his ANSYS slow run times was low on my radar. I quickly reassured him that the likelihood of his HPC cluster being compute bound was about 10% possible and very unlikely. I also briefly explained that his HPC cluster may be compute bound.
The CPU’s are waiting for new data to process and move on.
I/O Boundīasically this means that your cluster’s $2,000 worth of CPU’s are basically stalled out and sitting idle. Garnering some of other details about the cluster my hunch was that his HPC cluster may actually be I/O bound. He told me that they had paid a premium for the best CPU’s on the market and some other details about the HPC cluster. I said “Well it depends…” followed by going into explaining to him two fundamental pillars of computer science that have plagued most of us since computers were created: I said “Well you may be, CPU bound (compute bound) or I/O bound. He had told me that when I find myself stepping into gray areas that a good start to the conversation is to say. I recalled a conversation I had with one of my college professors. I immediately had my concerns and I truly thought carefully as to what I should say next. I imagine many of us have heard similar stories or even received the same questions from our co-workers, CEO’s & Directors. We just spent a truckload of money on a 256 core cluster and our solve times are slower now than with our previous 128 core cluster. Recently I had a VP of Engineering start a phone conversation with me that went something like this.
#Ansys student limitations how to
Real World Lessons on How to Minimize Run Time for ANSYS HPC