by Staff WritersLondon, UK (SPX) Apr 16, 2018
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QCD, or Quantum Chromodynamics, is the theory for the Strong force that binds together the fundamental particles, called quarks, to form protons and neutrons, as well as other hadrons. The actual size of quarks is not known, but measurements indicate that they are more than 1,000 times smaller than the proton.
"One of the Grand Challenges in Computational Physics, is calculating the binding of quarks by applying Monte Carlo methods to QCD. It is very pleasing to see that Maxeler is pushing the limits of what can be computed and bringing in a new era in large data computation," says Jerome Friedman who shared the Nobel Prize in 1990 for the discovery of quarks.
Funded by the EU PRACE initiative, "Maxeler Technologies based in London, recently delivered a pilot system to the Julich Supercomputing Centre in Germany that has the potential of facilitating a breakthrough in energy efficiency of large-scale QCD computations" says Professor Dirk Pleiter from Julich and Professor in Theoretical Physics at Regensburg University.
"The new machine outperforms existing QCD systems significantly in terms of power efficiency and computational density", says Professor Georgi Gaydadjiev, Director of Maxeler IoT-Labs in the Netherlands. The technology can now be used to build specialized data processing for QCD experiments and other applications.
"Maxeler's impressive QCD implementation is just one in the series of high impact applications across the physical sciences from experimental high energy physics to theory of materials, which have recently been migrated to Maxeler's Multiscale Dataflow technology," says Dr Vitali Averbukh, Department of Physics, Imperial College London.
The pilot system along with novel development tools for implementing large-scale compute-intensive scientific applications on Maxeler's proven Multiscale Dataflow technology was delivered under a contract awarded within a pre-commercial procurement of the EU PRACE-3IP project.
Deploying this pilot system enables QCD physicists and other scientists to exploit this revolutionary technology, for instance to extend our understanding of how quarks bind to form matter and, ultimately, how our universe works.
