NASA unveils its newest supercomputer today
during a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the agency’s
Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. The
“Columbia” is one of the world’s most powerful
supercomputing systems. Columbia was named to
honor the crew of the Space Shuttle Columbia lost
Feb. 1, 2003.
“This amazing new supercomputer system
dramatically increases NASA’s capabilities and
revolutionizes our capacity for conducting
scientific research and engineering design,” said
NASA Ames Research Center Director G. Scott
Hubbard. “It will be one of the fastest, largest
and most productive supercomputers in the world,
providing an estimated 10-fold increase in NASA’s
supercomputing capacity. It is already having a
major impact on NASA’s science, aeronautics and
exploration programs, in addition to playing a
critical role in preparing the Space Shuttle for
return to safe flight next year,” Hubbard said.
Comprised of an integrated cluster of 20
interconnected SGI® Altix® 512-processor systems,
for a total of 10,240 Intel® Itanium® 2
processors, Columbia was built and installed at
the NASA Advanced Supercomputing facility at Ames
in less than 120 days.
“The Columbia system is a tremendous development
for NASA and the nation. Simulation of the
evolution of the Earth and planetary ecosystems
with high fidelity has been beyond the reach of
Earth scientists for decades,” NASA’s Deputy
Associate Administrator, Science Mission
Directorate Ghassem Asrar said. “With Columbia,
scientists are already seeing dramatic
improvements in the fidelity of simulations in
such areas as hurricane track prediction, global
ocean circulation, prediction of large scale
structures in the universe, and the physics of
supernova detonations,” he said.
Columbia provides an integrated computing,
visualization and data storage environment to
help NASA meet its mission goals and the Vision
for Space Exploration. The new system builds upon
the highly successful collaboration between NASA,
Silicon Graphics, Inc. (SGI) and Intel
Corporation that developed the world’s first
512-processor Linux server. The server, the SGI®
Altix® located at Ames was named “Kalpana,” after
Columbia astronaut and Ames’ alumna Kalpana
Chawla.
“With SGI and Intel, we set out to revitalize
NASA’s computing capabilities, and the Columbia
system has done so in a spectacular way,” said
Walt Brooks, chief of NASA’s Advanced
Supercomputing Division. “Not only were
scientists doing real Earth and space analysis
during the system build, but within days of the
full installation, we achieved a Linpack
benchmark rating of 42.7 teraflops on 16 nodes
with an 88 percent efficiency rating, exceeding
the current best reported number by a significant
margin,” he said.
“With the completion of the Columbia system,
NASA, SGI and Intel have created a powerful
national resource, one that will serve scientists
who strive to unlock the mysteries of this planet
and the universe in which it dwells,” said SGI
CEO Bob Bishop. “NASA should be commended for the
remarkable boldness that made the new Columbia
computer happen. Our long-standing partnership
with the agency has triggered a new age in
scientific discovery, and based on NASA’s initial
success, it seems likely that we’ll be discussing
new scientific breakthroughs in the very near
future,” he said.
“The launching of the Columbia system shows
what’s possible when government and technology
leaders work together toward a goal of truly
national importance,” said Paul Otellini,
president and COO of Intel Corporation. “While
this Itanium 2 processor-based system will be one
of the highest performing computers ever created
in the world, the real value is how this system
will accelerate scientific design and research
faster than before for years to come.”
The almost instant productivity of the Columbia
supercomputer architecture and technology has
made the system available to a broad spectrum of
NASA-sponsored scientists. Feedback from
scientists is extremely positive. Columbia
already is enabling scientists to conduct
research and analyze complex data much faster in
a variety of scientific disciplines. The research
and analysis ranges from providing more accurate
hurricane predictions, to climate change, galaxy
formation, black holes and supernovas.
Thanks to the powerful Columbia supercomputer,
NASA scientists have developed an improved global
circulation model. Initial results from this new
model accurately predict when a hurricane is
expected to hit land five days in advance, three
days sooner than current methods, thereby helping
reduce the potential impact on life and property.
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http://amesnews.arc.nasa.gov/releases/2004/supercomputer/supercomputer.html
