 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
2004 NEWS AND HIGHLIGHTS
12.08.04 - NASA Research a Hit at Annual Supercomputing Conference
Exciting new research and technology from five NASA centers drew crowds at SC2004, the 16th annual supercomputing conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, November 6-12, 2004. Of most interest was the agency's recent success with the 10,240-processor SGI Altix supercomputer, Columbia, which was planned and constructed at the NASA Advanced Supercomputing (NAS) facility at Ames.
"SC2004 was the real unveiling of the power of the SGI and Intel-based system [Columbia] that NASA and the contractor team developed in just four short months," said NAS Division chief Walt Brooks. "It was really gratifying to see people appreciating that although we were excited about our high ranking on the TOP500 list, we were most proud of the 600-plus users, and the amazing, almost instant impact the system is having on NASA missions," Brooks explained.
Columbia's performance garnered the number two spot on the TOP500 Supercomputers List - results were announced at the conference. Surpassing Japan's Earth Simulator after its two-year stint as the world's fastest computer, the U.S. now holds the number one and two spots on the coveted list. IBM's Blue Gene system, slated for delivery at Lawrence Livermore National Labs, captured the number one spot.
Among the 35 demonstrations and presentations given at NASA's 1,200 square-foot research booth (representing NASA Ames, Langley, Goddard, Glenn, and JPL) was information on the X-43A scramjet-powered vehicle, which holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest air-breathing aircraft at Mach 10. In addition, advances in the emerging field of nanophase thermal and structural composite materials were presented. These materials are expected to revolutionize the capabilities of virtually every system for future robotic and human exploration missions of the moon and Mars.
Also attracting the attention of many conference goers was the NAS "mini hyperwall," a three-by-three array of liquid crystal displays, driven by a Beowulf-style cluster. Using applications from NASA's four Mission Directorates (Science, Aeronautics Research, Exploration Systems, and Space Operations), scientific visualization experts from the NAS Division took advantage of the mini hyperwall's 17 million pixels to explain Earth and ocean models, Mars terrain data captured by the Mars Exploration Rovers, black hole and neutron star models, and the crucial engineering being performed in support of NASA's Return-to-Flight effort.
In addition to the booth demonstrations, NASA was involved in several birds-of-a-feather (BOF) sessions and a keynote address. Brooks and NAS terascale applications group lead Jim Taft spoke at a Columbia BOF session. Brooks also chaired a BOF on SGI user experiences and delivered the keynote address at an SGI Innovators Breakfast.
"This year's conference marked NASA's return to a true leadership position in numerical simulation technology," said Brooks. "Developing a highly scalable single-system image, shared memory architecture has been the culmination of work over the last five years, and demonstrates it can function as one of the world's most powerful supercomputing systems."
-Holly A. Amundson
|
|
|
|
NEWS ARCHIVE
|
|
|
