The university now has the 117th fastest supercomputer in the world and the first to use IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol.
A supercomputer built with IBM’s eServer Blade Center technology running Linux will be capable of 4.5 teraflops, making it the fastest supercomputer in New York City. In a press release, IBM and New York University announced the new system will occupy about 30 square feet of space at the facility.
NYU will use the supercomputer to study weather issues like storms and hurricanes. The Center for Atmosphere-Ocean Science will be able to better model atmospheric circulation and ocean currents. Also, the new supercomputer will help foster genomics and bioinformatics research at the Center for Comparative Functional Genomics.
The Navy’s Office of Naval Research and the Army’s Medical Research and Materiel Command assisted NYU in its acquisition of the supercomputer. NYU’s new hardware consists of 256 BladeCenter JS20 systems, each with two 2.2 GHz PowerPC processors. IBM will also assist NYU in creating a joint test center with a 64-node system capable of 1 teraflop performance.
“IBM’s off-the-shelf blade server technology allowed us to easily connect a cluster of systems and solve the challenge of building a supercomputer in valuable space here in the city,” Marilyn McMillan, Associate Provost and Chief Information Technology Officer of New York University, said in the statement.
“By leveraging IBM’s Power Architecture technology with Linux, we are able to tap into a 64-bit computing platform that will greatly speed the research process and help our researchers to more rapidly turn scientific theory into real-world benefits to society.”
David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business. Email him here.
