Center for High-Performance Computing
Funded by the NSF



The Center will consist of an SGI Altix supercluster and an IBM BladeCenter.
  • The SGI Altix 3700 is a supercluster with 72 Intel Itanium 2 1.3 GHz processors, 112 GB global shared memory, an optimized 64-bit environment (SGI ProPack), and two 2 Port 2GB Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters. It comes with Intel Compilers for both C++ and Fortran, both of which offer auto-parallelization. Every memory module can be shared among every processor node in the configuration, maximizing the efficient use of all available memory at all times. Not only can the processors share memory, but they can also do so quickly. Information is sped between cluster nodes in as little as 50 nanoseconds; up to 200 times faster than standard clustering switches. As a result, data transfer bottlenecks are non-existent because processors do not waste idle cycles waiting for data from memory to arrive.
  • The SGI Total Performance 9300 (SGI TP9300) has 2 TB (28 × 73GB, 15K rpm LP Disk Drives) of storage and is a native 2Gb Fibre Channel storage system designed for applications requiring a combination of business-critical storage management features and networked storage connectivity. The modular design of this midrange storage array lowers initial acquisition costs for value-based entry configurations, yet scales easily with the full Fibre Channel storage area network (SAN) functionality to keep up with increased demands for capacity. This configuration is housed in four full-height racks with all the cables needed to connect them together. The Altix system will be connected to the university’s network backbone via Fast Ethernet lines. For our research center, we plan to install 20 Linux workstations that will also be connected to the university network. Each of these workstations will be configured with Intel 2.4 GHz P4 800 FSB, 2 GB of memory, and 40 GB of hard drive space, giving our faculty and research assistants the tools necessary to access the server via the Fast Ethernet.
  • The IBM BladeCenter HS20 blade server features an Intel Xeon EM64T 3.8GHz/800MHz processor with 2MB L2 cache, 1GB memory, two Gigabit Ethernet controllers with load balancing and failover features, a 73.4GB SFF Non Hot-Swap U320 10k rpm SCSI hard drive, and expansion capabilities for Fibre Channel, Ethernet, Myrinet, and Infiniband. Ten of these blades are housed in an IBM BladeCenter chassis. The chassis features 4 2000W power supplies, a 4-port Gigabit Ethernet switch, and comes with a 3-year onsite repair 24x7 hour response warranty.


Research Projects
Integrated Computation and Communication

Video Coding and Processing

Biometrics Computing

Experimental Mathematics

Computational Physics

Human Genome