NASA announces world's fastest supercomputer

 
NASA & SGI today announced that the world's fastest supercomputer in the
hands of the U.S. government, *officially* taking the title back from the
Japanese and NEC's Earth Simulator.  This is a real computer, conducting
real science on NASA projects; this is not a stunt.  This system conducts
42.7 trillion calculations per second.
 
?          Supercomputer named in honor of astronauts aboard Shuttle
Columbia, who perished in an explosion in 2003.
 
?          Centuries into months:  In just a few months, this system can run
models of the Earth's atmosphere over many centuries.
 
?          3 more days:  Hurricanes can now be tracked faster and sooner -
giving people in hurricane-targeted areas 5 days notice before it hits, 3
days sooner than the current system.
 
?          Needing space:  NASA shuttle launches can be launched 100 times
in one week on this system, giving engineers more dry-runs and analytic
tools to make space travel safer with improved designs.
 
?          SGI broke another speed record by manufacturing and installing
this system in 120 days.
 
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IMAGERY DETAILS
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Print: ftp://shell.sgi.com/collect/ProjectColumbia
 
Webcast:  http://vanseg-1.arc.nasa.gov/2004/NAS041026-01.ram
 
For TV news organizations: NASA will be posting the b-roll tape on NASA
Television. The schedule is located on
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/index.html
It is supposed to be up at 6am, 9am, 12noon and 3pm Pacific time.
 
Here are the coordinates: NASA Television can be seen in the continental
United States on AMC-6, at 72 degrees west longitude, Transponder 9, 3880
MHz, vertical polarization, audio at 6.8 MHz.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE           
 
NASA'S COLUMBIA SUPERCOMPUTER IS WORLD'S FASTEST
 
NASA, SGI and Intel Achieve Record Performance on 10,240-CPU Altix System
Deployed at NASA Ames 
 
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., (October 26, 2004)-Silicon Graphics (NYSE: SGI) with
NASA today confirmed that NASA's new Intel(r) Itanium(r) 2 processor-based
Columbia supercomputer is the most powerful computer in the world. Only days
after NASA completed installation of Columbia-and using just 16 of
Columbia's 20 installed systems-the new supercomputer achieved sustained
performance of 42.7 trillion calculations per second (teraflops), eclipsing
the performance of every supercomputer operating today.
 
Built from SGI(r) Altix(r) systems and driven by 10,240 Intel Itanium 2
processors, Columbia's 16-system result easily tops Japan's famed Earth
Simulator, rated at 35.86 teraflops, and IBM's recent in-house Blue Gene/L
experiment, rated at 36.01 teraflops. Columbia's record results were
achieved running the LINPACK benchmark on 8,192 of the NASA supercomputer's
10,240 processors. Columbia also achieved an 88 percent efficiency rating on
the LINPACK benchmark, the highest efficiency rating ever attained in a
LINPACK test on large systems.
 
While LINPACK is popular as a yardstick of supercomputing performance, NASA
is primarily interested in how the Columbia system will revolutionize the
rate of scientific discovery at the Agency.
 
"Benchmarks are useful for confirming that Columbia is meeting our
performance expectations, but the numbers we find most significant are
something else altogether," said Walt Brooks, division chief, Advanced
Supercomputing Division, NASA. "For instance, we find the number five to be
significant. This is because with Columbia, scientists are discovering they
can potentially predict hurricane paths a full five days before the storms
reach landfall - an enormous improvement over today's two-day warnings and
one that may present huge advantages for saving human life and property."
 
"Also significant is the number one," added Brooks, "because with just one
of Columbia's 20 Altix systems, we've reduced the time required to perform
complex aircraft design analysis from years to a single day."
 
"Unlike other recent supercomputer speed announcements, the Columbia world
speed record was attained on a system that is already fully in use at a
customer site," said Dave Parry, senior vice president and general manager,
Server and Platform Group, SGI. "We're delighted to see the efforts of NASA,
SGI and Intel deliver such remarkable results, not only in terms of
benchmark superiority, but in the creation of a system that is changing the
very nature of science."
 
Shattering long-held assumptions about supercomputing deployment, Columbia
was built and installed in fewer than 120 days, and was available to
scientists throughout its installation. In fact, scientists from NASA
centers and universities throughout the US used new Altix systems within
days after they arrived at NASA. Columbia is already having a major impact
on NASA's science, aeronautics, and exploration programs, in addition to
playing a critical role in the Space Shuttle Return to Flight activity. (See
related announcement, "NASA, SGI and Intel Build and Deploy World's Most
Powerful Supercomputer in Record Time")
 
NASA unveiled new details of its Columbia supercomputer in a dedication
ceremony today at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.  
 
Signaling a new era in deployable supercomputing technology, the Linux(r)
OS-based Columbia system is built from the same industry standard,
commercially available Altix systems that have been in widespread use
throughout the world since SGI introduced Altix in January 2003. Leading
automakers, consumer product manufacturers, energy companies, pharmaceutical
companies, national laboratories, government agencies and research
institutions have adopted the SGI Altix platform, which can scale from 4 to
512 processors in a single system.
 
SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery(tm)
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. (NYSE: SGI), is a leader in
high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to
provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative
breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in
brain surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate,
providing technologies for homeland security and defense or enabling the
transition from analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to
addressing the next class of challenges for scientific, engineering and
creative users. With offices worldwide, the company is headquartered in
Mountain View, Calif., and can be found on the Web at www.sgi.com.
-end-
Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, the SGI cube and the SGI logo are registered
trademarks, and The Source of Innovation and Discovery is a trademark of
Silicon Graphics, Inc., in the United States and/or other countries
worldwide. Linux is a registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in several
countries. Intel and Itanium are trademarks or registered trademarks of
Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other
countries. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their
respective owners.
 
Images available at www.sgi.com/newsroom
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For a complete background story, SGI also issued today a media release
detailing the development of NASA's Columbia system.