May 6, 2006
[ return to the news list ]
Indianapolis Star (04/06/06)
O'Neal, Kevin
Indiana University will soon be the owner of a $9 million IBM supercomputer--one of the 20 fastest in the world--that will be able to perform more than 20 trillion calculations a second. The new machine is 20 times faster than Indiana's last supercomputer purchase, providing enough processing power to support research in the formation of planets, weather patterns, and molecular-level biology. A high-speed fiber-optic network will enable researchers at other Indiana campuses to utilize the computing power of the new system. Supercomputers are now critical to universities seeking to conduct high-level research, said Jack Dongarra, professor at the Innovative Computing Laboratory at the University of Tennessee. The ability to conduct research of that caliber puts schools in line for research grants, of which Indiana expects to receive $477 million worth this year. With the new supercomputer, Indiana has set an annual goal of $800 million in research grants. Nearby Purdue University also welcomes Indiana's new computer. "This is like a rising tide that lifts our boat," said Steve Talley, Purdue's media relations manager for IT. "It shows that they are one of the leading research institutions in the nation." The computers at Indiana and Purdue are connected, so Purdue researchers will also be able to tap into the new computer. Purdue recently has been concentrating its efforts on distributed computing, and already maintains a supercomputer of its own. Indiana's new computer is expected to rival the performance of a 2,200-processor machine at Virginia Tech that ranked No. 20 on the most recent list of the world's top 500 supercomputers.
For the full article see http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060406/NEWS01/604060440
Posted by rab5 at 01:22 PM
[ return to the news list ]
