ARL MSRC Increases Computer Capability

The U.S. Army Research Laboratory Major Shared Resource Center (ARL MSRC) in Adelphi, MD, one of DOD's four supercomputing sites for its High Performance Computing Modernization Office (HPCMO), announced that it is increasing its computing capability from 9.1 trillion to 36 trillion floating-point operations (TFLOPS) by adding three computing systems to its already robust spectrum. The added power will make the ARL MSRC one of DOD's largest computing centers, an investment estimated at $20 million.

"This increase in computing capability will give DOD scientists and engineers the ability to solve complex, 3-D, time-dependent, physics-based problems in a timeframe that can provide the data necessary to assist with weapon development and procurement decisions," said Charles J. Nietubicz, Acting Deputy Director, Computational and Information Sciences Directorate (CISD).

The three systems, which are the first major commodity-based symmetric multiprocessor supercomputers used in the HPCMO, will be introduced at ARL this summer. The most powerful of the new systems, a 2,132-central processing unit (CPU) Linux NetworX Evolocity II� system, will increase ARL MSRC computational capability by more than 15 TFLOPS. The system will consist of 1,066 nodes, each equipped with two Intel� Xeon(TM) 3.6-GHz processors, 1.5 GB of memory per CPU and will use the Myrinet(TM) interconnect. This system will be ranked as one of the top 10 most powerful computer systems in the world.

A second system, a 2,304-CPU cluster from IBM�, will comprise 1,152 dual-2.2 GHzAMD Opteron(TM) processors and a Myrinet interconnect. The system will increase ARL MSRC computational capability by more than 10 TFLOPS. This system will also have a top 10 world-computer system ranking.

The third system, a Silicon Graphics� 256 processor single system image SGI� Altix� system with SGI NUMAlink(TM) interconnect, will add an additional 2 TFLOPS to the high-performance computing (HPC) environment.

Raytheon engineers will work with government partners to integrate, install, test and transition these new systems for production use by fiscal year end. This acquisition and system integration will be the HPCMO's first major introduction into the commodity space, and ARL will be the program leader in production commodity clusters. With these upgrades, ARL will become the first and only center in the HPCMO providing greater than 10 terabytes (10,000 GB) of memory.

"The ARL MSRC serves a diverse, technically challenging HPC user population," said Denice P. Brown, Acting ARL MSRC Center Director. "The selection of Linux NetworX, IBM and SGI systems provides the flexibility to meet users' diverse challenges."

Established in 1996, ARL MSRC helps DOD focus and exploit HPC technology for military advantage across the battlespace. This customer-focused, world-class computational facility supports DOD's research and development, science and technology and test and evaluation communities with some of the world's newest, scalable, parallel computers. These supercomputers feature shared and distributed memory architectures. Researchers use ARL MSRC facilities to model and simulate systems, explore chemical reactions, study and design weapon systems, analyze sensors and experimental data and develop new composite materials.

This new equipment is part of the HPCMO's Technology Insertion 2004, an initiative to modernize DOD's HPC capabilities. For more information, contact Tonya Johnson at (301) 394-4456 or ltjohnson@arl.army.mil.