[Wrf-users] Computer needs for WRF

[Ólafur Rögnvaldsson]

Hello John.

Our experience running WRF on a variety of clusters (one is a hybrid
dual cpu and dual-dual core and the other consists of dual quad core
blades) is:

1) Good inter-node connection is necessary (for example InfiniBand)
2) The memory bus on the nodes/computers must be good, i.e. high
bandwidth and low latency, in order not to become a bottleneck. This
becomes more important as the number of cores on the machine increases.

If you're only thinking about purchasing one machine, having it contain
an additional GPU processor (typically from Nvidia) might be something
you should consider. I believe the GPU processor can speed up the
simulation a great deal. Please mark that I've not tested it myself and
I believe this hardware, in combination with WRF, is still in a testing
phase.

Happy hacking.

Ólafur.

> Dear WRF users,
> 
> I recently received funding for a research project that includes the use
> of WRF to simulate climate in the upper Missouri River basin.  I have a
> Sun Ultra (with dual co-processors), but I understand that compiling WRF
> on a Sun with Solaris OS is challenging.  I may have the opportunity to
> purchase a second workstation for running WRF.  Any suggestions?  This
> machine would be mostly to run WRF to set up model runs and to become
> more familiar with the model.  We would not use it for extended runs.
>  Would a Dell workstation with Red Hat Linux work well?  Thanks for any
> feedback from the WRF community.
> 
> John
> 
> John Stamm
> Hydrologist, Ph.D., P.G.
> U.S. Geological Survey
> South Dakota Water Science Center
> jstamm at usgs.gov
> 
> Adjunct Professor
> Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
> South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
> 
> 
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-- 
Kveðja/regards,
Ólafur Rögnvaldsson
Reiknistofa í veðurfræði - Belgingur
www.belgingur.is - www.riv.is