Supercomputer to boost Aeronautical Systems Center's capabilities Published March 2, 2007 By Jeff Graham Advanced Computational Analysis Directorate WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNEWS) -- With the addition of an SGI® Altix® 4700 computer this summer, the Aeronautical Systems Center Major Shared Resource Center will house one of the Department of Defense's High Performance Computing Modernization Program's largest supercomputers. Installation of the SGI® Altix® 4700 - a 9,216-processor-core supercomputer with 20 TeraBytes of shared memory and 440 TeraBytes of usable disk space - will enhance the Major Shared Resource Center's computing power. This new system will help facilitate weapon systems design, advance design concepts, accelerate modification programs for critical warfighting systems, enable higher fidelity modeling and simulation studies and support increasing "game-changing" computational science and engineering applications. Officials say the new system will initially be available for limited production, with full production targeted for Oct. 1. The Major Shared Resource Center is a computational science facility supporting DoD research; and development, test and evaluation communities with high-performance computing resources. According to Steve Wourms, director for ASC's Advanced Computational Analysis Directorate, the addition of the supercomputer with three existing 2,048 processor systems will increase total computing performance to 85 TeraFLOPS. FLOPS is an acronym meaning FLoating Point Operations Per Second. TeraFLOPS is a measure of a computer's speed and can be expressed as a trillion FLoating Point Operations Per Second. "This supercomputer will provide our researchers with the resources to solve the most complex and challenging problems confronting our nation in these uncertain times," said Mr. Wourms. SGI configured the system to make it user friendly for engineers who aren't computer scientists. The supercomputer meets the requirements of scientific, engineering and creative users who require high-caliber performance, unparalleled value and industry-leading Linux solutions to keep pace with the growing demands of government applications. "More than a thousand researchers will rely on the Major Shared Resource Center's powerful SGI installation to simulate entire battles, aircraft and weapons systems with unprecedented fidelity," said Dr. Eng Lim Goh, senior vice president and chief technology officer for SGI. "These scientists and engineers are working with ever-increasing data sets that benefit directly from the Altix 4700 architecture's ability to process massive problems as a whole, which shortens time to results and allows more interactive and insightful work." Dennis McKenna, chairman and chief executive officer of SGI, added, "The work undertaken by the Major Shared Resource Center will have a direct and lasting impact on the future of air defense." Comment on this story (comments may be published on Air Force Link) Click here to view the comments/letters page