Who inspired the system names

Dardel

Dardel is an HPE Cray XE supercomputer that is currently the flagship system at PDC. The system was named in honour of the Swedish author, Thora Dardel , and her first husband, Nils Dardel , who was a Swedish painter. The front panels of the Dardel system feature four paintings by Nils Dardel: “The Dying Dandy”  oil painting (which is one of Nils’ most famous works), a section of the famously expensive “Waterfall” painting and a section of “Crime of Passion” (another of Nils’ well known works), plus a portrait of Thora. The background text on the blue panels is from Thora’s book about Nils (which is known as “En bok om Nils Dardel” in Swedish).

The Dardel system consists of two partitions - one based on CPUs and one that uses graphics processing units (GPUs) - split over two rows. Although the majority of supercomputer systems at PDC have been named after Swedish authors, PDC's earlier GPU-based system was named after the Swedish artist, Anders Zorn. Consequently, it seemed highly appropriate to name the new system after the Dardels, as Thora was an author and Nils was a painter. Although Thora and Nils divorced after 13 years of marriage, they remained good friends until Nils’ early death from a heart condition.

Interestingly, Nils painted “The Dying Dandy” in 1918 at the time of the great influenza epidemic that lasted until 1920. A century later in 2020, the world once more found itself in the grip of a deadly pandemic, so the choice of this painting also serves as a salute to the courage of the medical and care personnel who worked so hard to care for those infected during the COVID19 pandemic and also to the sorrow of those who lost their loved ones to the recent pandemic. It is also a reminder of the contributions supercomputers make in the fight against illness - for example, by being used to model how viruses actually infect people on a molecular level, which makes it possible to develop new types of vaccines.

PDC thanks the Moderna Museet  (Modern Art Museum) in Stockholm, and Prallan Allsten, for providing the high-resolution photo of “The Dying Dandy” that is used on the front panels of the system. If you are curious, you can see The Dying Dandy” at the Moderna Museet. The painting of Thora is owned by a private collector.

Beskow and Tegner

Beskow was a CRAY XC40 supercomputer that was PDC's flagship system from 2014- 2021. Tegner was the pre- and post-processing system for Beskow.

The Beskow system was named after Elsa Beskow  who is one of the most well-known authors and illustrators of children’s books in Sweden. The pre- and post-processing system for Beskow was named after Alice Tegnér . Alice was a Swedish music teacher, poet and composer, who was recognized as the foremost composer of Swedish children’s songs during the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Elsa and Alice worked together to create many charming song books for children, with Alice composing the music and Elsa illustrating the books. Both Alice and Elsa lived in Djursholm in Stockholm and, almost a century later, the systems Tegner and Beskow were cooperating in a similar manner, albeit a little farther south at PDC in Norra Djurgården.

The panels on Beskow feature illustrations by Elsa Beskow from “Children of the Forest” (Tomtebobarnen) on the left, “The Land of Long Ago” (Resan till Landet Längesen) on the right, and the centre panel is from “Mother's Little Ollie” (Mors lilla Olle) which was a collaboration between Elsa and Alice Tegnér.

Milner

Milner was a Cray XC30 system at PDC that was used for neuroscience research starting in 2014. This system was sponsored by a grant from the the Swedish Research Council (VR) that was awarded to a consortium of researchers from the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, the Karolinska Institute and the International Neuroinformatics Coordination Facility (INCF). They named the system in recognition of significant work in neuropsychology that was done by Brenda Milner  and her then husband Peter in the 1950s.

Lindgren

Lindgren was PDC’s flagship supercomputing system before Beskow. The system was named after the prolific and wonderfully talented Swedish author Astrid Lindgren , who wrote many delightful children’s books, including the famous Pippi Longstocking stories.

Key

Key was one of the first systems at PDC to contain GPUs. Although the system mainly consisted of CPUs, it also had two GPUs. The system was named after the Swedish author Ellen Key  and began operating at PDC in 2011.

Zorn

Zorn was one of the first systems at PDC based on GPUs. It was installed in 2010 then upgraded in 2012 and was in use till early 2015. It was named in honour of Anders Zorn , who was one of Sweden’s foremost artists: he was a skilled painter, sculptor and etcher.

Bellman

The first system at PDC was a Connection Machine (CM) that was installed in late 1989. It was named after the famous Swedish composer and poet from the 1700s Carl Michael Bellman , as his initials were “CM” just like the Connection Machine. Bellman’s music is still popular in Sweden - one of his most famous songs is “ Gubben Noak ”. Thus, a tradition of naming PDC’s systems after Swedish people who were famous for their creations in the arts was born.