Argonne's green Blue Gene/P gets more muscle to address most challenging
scientific problems
Dramatic advances in computing will provide unparalleled open environment
for researchers to develop better understanding of the world
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ARGONNE, Ill. (Nov. 1, 2007) – IBM and the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne
National Laboratory today announced completion of a contract for a 445-teraflops
Blue Gene/P system for the Argonne Leadership
Computing Facility (ALCF).
As
the ALCF's second major acquisition, this enhancement increases the system
capability by a factor of five to 556-teraflops. This additional capacity
will accelerate the coming era of petascale computation in support of breakthrough
science and engineering aimed at solving the nation's most challenging scientific
problems.
"The IBM Blue Gene/P at Argonne is a critical piece of the department's
strategy for leadership computing," said Michael Strayer, associate director
for Advanced
Scientific Computing Research in the U.S. Department of Energy's
Office of Science. "Not
only is it part of a very productive partnership with the National
Nuclear Security Administration, but it also provides the architectural diversity
to ensure that a wide array of applications can take advantage of forefront
computing capabilities. The Blue Gene architecture is especially well suited
for materials research and other simulations that require molecular dynamics."
"By the time this project is complete, Argonne will be home to one of
our country's preeminent computing facilities," said Rick Stevens,
associate laboratory director of Computing
and Life Sciences at Argonne. "We look forward to housing this strategic
facility and to the research advances and scientific progress it will generate."
Regarding pure computation power, the Blue Gene/P can carry out 445 million
million calculations per second (445 teraflops is 445 followed by 12 zeroes).
If all six billion people on Earth were participating in a science computation,
each person would need to do 70,000 additions or multiplications per second
to keep up with the Blue Gene/P. Moreover, the Blue Gene/P systems consume
a fraction of the power per teraflop required by similar systems built around
commodity microprocessors. This energy-efficient solution reduces power demands
and lowers operating costs.
"ALCF has been a valuable contributor in the development of Blue Gene/P," said
Leo Suarez, head of deep computing at IBM. "The close working relationship
that we enjoy will deliver a machine that will propel scientific discovery
in the most profound way since Galileo's telescope."
IBM designed this extraordinary computer, and the ALCF is building a data
storage system that can match it. The ALCF-Blue Gene/P system pairs one of
the world's fastest machines with advanced data management capabilities to
meet the intense computing and data demands of petascale computing by leveraging
the combined power of Argonne, IBM, Myricom and DataDirect
Networks.
Established in 2006, the ALCF is Argonne's newest national user facility
and is a key element of DOE's effort to provide leadership-class computing
resources to the scientific community, making computationally intensive projects
of the largest scale possible. ALCF operates this facility for DOE's Office
of Science and also provides in-depth expertise and assistance in using petascale
systems and optimizing scientific applications.
Most of ALCF's available computing time will be allocated by DOE's Innovative
and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program. This
peer reviewed program seeks computationally intensive research projects from
industry, academia, and research organizations, which are poised to make high-impact
scientific advances through the use of a large allocation of computer time
and data storage.
"Researchers can employ this new computing resource to attack cutting-edge
problems in science and engineering at unprecedented scale and speed," said
Ray Bair, Argonne's ALCF director, "expanding the already diverse research
Blue Gene/L has been supporting in areas like understanding the molecular basis
of Parkinson's disease, designing more efficient jet engines and manipulating
light at the nanoscale."
Science and engineering computations will be able to use up to 163,840 processors
at a time to explore how complex physical, chemical and biological systems
behave.
DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research
in the physical sciences in the nation and helps ensure U.S. world leadership
across a broad range of scientific disciplines. The Office of Science
supports a diverse portfolio of research at more than 300 colleges and universities
nationwide, manages 10 world-class national laboratories with unmatched capabilities
for solving complex interdisciplinary scientific problems, and builds and operates
the world's finest suite of scientific facilities and instruments used annually
by more than 19,000 researchers to extend the frontiers of all areas of science. Visit http://www.sc.doe.gov/ for
more information.
About Argonne
Argonne National Laboratory seeks solutions to pressing national problems in science and technology.
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne conducts leading-edge basic
and applied scientific research in virtually every scientific discipline. Argonne
researchers work closely with researchers from hundreds of companies, universities,
and federal, state and municipal agencies to help them solve their specific
problems, advance America 's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for
a better future. With employees from more than 60 nations, Argonne is managed
by UChicago
Argonne, LLC for
the U.S.
Department of Energy's Office
of Science.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years of
leadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from across
IBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services, solutions,
and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to take full advantage
of the new era of e-business. For more information about IBM, visit www.ibm.com.
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