David E. Steitz
Headquarters, Washington
202-358-1730
Michael Mewhinney
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
650-604-3937
Michael Corrado
IBM Media Relations Supercomputing, Somers, N.Y.
914-766-4635
RELEASE: 07-133
NASA SELECTS IBM FOR NEXT-GENERATION SUPERCOMPUTER APPLICATIONS
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. - On Wednesday, NASA and IBM, Armonk, N.Y.,
announced the agency has selected an IBM System p575+ supercomputer
for evaluating next-generation technology to meet the agency's future
supercomputing requirements. Supercomputers play a critical role in
many NASA missions, including new space vehicle design, global
climate studies and astrophysics research.
The IBM system is being installed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing
(NAS) facility at the Ames Research Center at Moffett Field, Calif.,
where it is undergoing testing and evaluation. With 640 computational
cores and a peak performance of approximately 5.6 teraflops, the
system will augment the agency's existing "Columbia" system,
currently ranked as the eighth fastest supercomputer in the world.
A teraflop is a measure of a computer's speed; one teraflop can be
expressed as a trillion floating point operations per second.
"With NASA's high-end computing needs expected to continue during the
next few years, we need to keep pace with improved technologies.
IBM's system meets all the criteria for our base system evaluation,
and working closely with them, we will chart out a successful path
for the NASA supercomputing environment," said Dr. Piyush Mehrotra,
who leads the NAS applications group and is steering the technology
upgrade effort.
The NAS supports scientists and engineers throughout the United States
who work on projects such as designing spacecraft, improving weather
and hurricane models, and understanding the behavior of the sun. Many
NASA projects require large, complex calculations and sophisticated
mathematical models that can be efficiently handled only by a
supercomputer.
"The research undertaken by NASA scientists is allowing engineers to
design and build safer, more advanced spacecraft more quickly than
ever," said Dave Turek, vice president of Deep Computing for IBM.
"Computer simulation technology produces perfect prototypes for
virtual testing, reducing the need for physical testing."
The NAS technology upgrade effort used a comprehensive benchmark suite
to characterize system performance on NASA-relevant applications and
to measure job throughput for a workload in a complex,
high-performance computing environment.
The IBM p575+ supercomputer acquisition is the first of a four-phase
procurement process that eventually will replace the Columbia
supercomputer system. This phased replacement supports the
requirements of the agency Strategic Capabilities Assets Program
(SCAP) High-End Computing Capability to provide supercomputing
capability to meet the needs of NASA's programs and missions.
For more information about NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility,
visit:
For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
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