ERDC MSRC High Performance Computers on Top 500 Supercomputers List

High performance computing, or supercomputing, platforms at the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) Major Shared Resource Center (MSRC) in Vicksburg, Miss., continue to be ranked among the Top 500 supercomputers in the world.

The ERDC MSRC has consistently appeared on the Top 500 list since it was first published in June 1993. The latest Top 500 list was released in late June 2003 by the University of Mannheim, the University of Tennessee and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center/Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Compiled twice a year, the list provides a statistical component in the overall picture of comparative supercomputing performance.

The highest-ranking ERDC MSRC supercomputer on the Top 500 list is the Cray T3E at number 46. Rounding out the list are the Hewlett-Packard (HP) SC45 at number 75, the HP SC40 at number 106, and components of the SGI Origin 3000 (O3K) Complex at positions 155, 156, and 384. The Earth Simulator Center in Japan is ranked number 1.

With 1,904 processing elements, the ERDC MSRC Cray T3E is the largest unclassified Cray T3E supercomputer in the world. The HP SC40 and HP SC45 each have 512 processors, as do the two SGI Origin 3900s and the SGI Origin 3800 that make up the ERDC MSRC's O3K Complex. When the 64-processor Cray X1 supercomputer is added later this summer, the ERDC will have 6.4 teraflops, or 6.4 trillion calculations per second, of computing capability.

The aggregate capability of the ERDC MSRC, which serves the high performance computing needs of thousands of engineers and scientists throughout the Department of Defense (DoD), continues to place the ERDC MSRC among the top 10 percent of supercomputing centers in the world.

The ERDC is the premier research and development facility for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It consists of seven laboratories at four geographical sites, with over 2,000 employees, $1.2 billion in facilities, and an annual research program exceeding $570 million. It conducts research in both military and civil works mission areas for the DoD and the nation. Information about the ERDC is available at http://www.erdc.usace.army.mil/.

The ERDC MSRC is one of four MSRCs supported by the DoD High Performance Computing Modernization Program. Additional information is available at http://www.erdc.hpc.mil/.