Tectonic High-Performance Simulator

Capacity Computing

The motivation for operating an inhouse cluster system it to provide our researches with the ability to perform capacity computing, i.e. the execution of a large number of high-throughput jobs large enough to require a high-performance system, but small enough to not require a huge machine as offered by a supercomputing center.

As such TETHYS is used for parameter studies, running pre-studies before switching to larger models on supercomputers as well as parallel code development.

For more on capacity computing and the design decisions for the original Tectonic High-Performance Simulator, see Oeser, J., H.-P. Bunge, and M. Mohr (2006), Cluster Design in the Earth Sciences: TETHYS.

As of Nov 2025 there are 80 publications (papers, conference proceedings, pre-prints) that attributed the use of one of our TETHYS clusters in their research. In addition, simulations were performed on the clusters as part of various doctoral theses in Geophysics.

TETHYS-3G

The third generation of the Munich Tectonic High-Performance Simulator is currently operating in production mode. It is Munich Geophysics' inhouse cluster dedicated to capacity computing and mid-sized simulation run.

The cluster is being co-funded by the Free State of Bavaria and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) in the framework of the programme for Forschungsgroßgeräte nach Art. 91b GG – 495931446.

TETHYS-2G

The second generation of the Munich Tectonic High-Performance Simulator was running in production mode from December 2012 to August 2022. It was then replaced by TETHYS-3G.

The cluster was co-funded by the Free State of Bavaria and the German Science Foundation (DFG) in the framework of the programme for Forschungsgroßgeräte nach Art. 91b GG.

TETHYS

Between 2006 and 2012 Munich Geophysics operated the first installment of the Tectonic High-Performance Simulator, a 160 core AMD Opteron cluster with a theoretical peak performance of 0.8 TFLOP.

During its six years of operation TETHYS was an indispensable tool for research in Computational Seismology and Geodynamics. From 2006 to 2012 there were 19 doctoral thesis written in the Geodynamics and Seismology groups all of which involved computer simulation and many of them profitted from TETHYS. At the date of its decommissioning the ISI Web of Knowledge listed 14 reviewed papers in renowned journals that cite Oeser (2006) to credit the fact that they include results from simulation runs in TETHYS.

In 2012 TETHYS was replaced by a new Intel Xeon cluster.

This first phase of TETHYS was financed jointly by the Free State of Bavaria and the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) by means of the HBFG program. Some extra nodes were sponsored by the German Science Foundation (DFG) in the context of grant KA 2281/2-1.

We would also like to thank our industry partners Microstaxx GmbH and the High-Performance Group of Fujitsu-Siemens Computers for their support in building and maintaining the cluster.