AUTHOR=Helias Moritz , Kunkel Susanne , Masumoto Gen , Igarashi Jun , Eppler Jochen M., Ishii Shin , Fukai Tomoki , Morrison Abigail , Diesmann Markus 

TITLE=Supercomputers Ready for Use as Discovery Machines for Neuroscience

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Neuroinformatics

VOLUME=Volume 6 - 2012

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/neuroinformatics/articles/10.3389/fninf.2012.00026

DOI=10.3389/fninf.2012.00026

ISSN=1662-5196

ABSTRACT=NEST is a widely used tool to simulate biological spiking neural networks. Here we explain the
improvements, guided by a mathematical model of memory consumption, that enable us to exploit
for the first time the computational power of the K supercomputer for neuroscience. Multi-threaded
components for wiring and simulation combine 8 cores per MPI process to achieve excellent scaling.
K is capable of simulating networks corresponding to a brain area with 10^8 neurons and 10^12 synapses
in the worst case scenario of random connectivity; for larger networks of the brain its hierarchical
organization can be exploited to constrain the number of communicating computer nodes. We
discuss the limits of the software technology, comparing maximum-□lling scaling plots for K and
the JUGENE BG/P system. The usability of these machines for network simulations has become
comparable to running simulations on a single PC. Turn-around times in the range of minutes even
for the largest systems enable a quasi-interactive working style and render simulations on this scale
a practical tool for computational neuroscience.