SGI (Silicon Graphics Pty Ltd), a world leader in high-performance computing and visualisation systems, and the University of Queensland today announced plans to establish a national supercomputer facility in Queensland.
The facility-known as the Australian Solid Earth Simulator-is being funded jointly by the Federal Government, The University of Queensland, the University of Western Australia, CSIRO and SGI.
SGI will provide a grant of $300,000 to assist with the establishment of the multi-million dollar national supercomputer facility that will be used for solid dynamics and earthquake research. Project coordinator, Professor Peter Mora, says SGI's involvement represents a substantial commitment.
"SGI is showing great insight in using the new facility to showcase the benefits of supercomputers to a wider community," he said. "In addition, by securing the support of SGI, one of the world's leading computer companies, the University of Queensland will extend its pre-eminent position in high performance computing internationally."
This announcement further boosts the Queensland Government's "Smart State" initiative since it facilitates the provision of advanced high performance computing infrastructure to support key knowledge-based industries in the state.
Vice-Chancellor of The University of Queensland, Professor John Hay, says the project is yet another example of Queensland building on its national leadership in new technology.
"Working with SGI further develops the University of Queensland's already significant international reputation for supercomputing, and will undoubtedly have flow on benefits to industry," he said.
The Australian Solid Earth Simulator will have its main supercomputer in Brisbane and will be used by a multi-disciplinary national research team probing earthquake behaviour and other environmental problems, while pushing the frontiers of industrial solid mechanics.
The team will be based at the international headquarter of ACES (APEC Cooperation for Earthquake Simulation) at The University of Queensland and will collaborate with other research teams from the USA, China and Japan.
The system will be a new technology computer system based on SGI's next-generation Origin? server family. Slated to deliver 250 Gflops (approximately 250 thousand million operations per second) of peak performance, the SGI system will be the most powerful computer in Queensland.
A second, smaller system will be located in Western Australia.
Mr Greg Sitters, Managing Director of SGI for Australia said SGI has worked very closely with major science and research institutes throughout the state of Queensland.
"The work undertaken by the ACES group is world class and benefits greatly from access to very large high-performance computing systems. SGI has built a strong reputation for meeting the needs of the most demanding customers in high-performance computing," he said.
"Our customers will be able to make significant advances in their research work with the next generation SGI systems. I am delighted that we are able to support this worthy initiative."
Today's announcement is one of the first Australian orders for a new generation of highly scalable, high performance ccNUMA servers and supercomputers from SGI. Building upon the success of the SGI? Origin? series, SGI's third generation of ccNUMA servers will feature a modular architecture that means each system can be tailored to exactly match the customer's performance and application requirements. Peak performance of the complete system is anticipated to reach three Tflops (approximately three million million operations per second) by the 2003 timeframe. Further details of the new systems will be unveiled later this year.
About The University of Queensland
The University of Queensland is a leader among Australia's 39 universities, recognised internationally as a premier research institution. It is one of only three Australian members of the elite Universitas 21- a global alliance of 20 universities committed to quality enhancement through international benchmarking.
The university is located on the Web at http://www.uq.edu.au
UQ Contact: Peter Mora on 07 3878 1261 or Jan King at UQ Communications on 0413 601 248
About SGI
SGI provides a broad range of high-performance computing and advanced graphics solutions that enable customers to understand and conquer their toughest computing problems. Headquartered in Mountain View, California, with offices worldwide, the company is located on the Web at http://www.sgi.com www.sgi.com and at http://www.sgi.com.au
Origin, SGI and the SGI logo are trademarks of Silicon Graphics, Inc. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owner.
SGI Contact: Paul Rushton, (02) 8875 9500, pnr@sgi.com
Enquiries can also be directed to communications@mailbox.uq.edu.au
