The Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation recently won $330,000 from the NSF to build a new special-purpose cluster.
…[Carlos Lousto, associate professor in the School for Mathematical Sciences] designed and built the computer using hardware from California-based Western Scientific. The 85 nodes that make this computer “super” each has its own dual processor, or four amounts of computing units per node. Direct communication between the nodes is made possible by AMD processors, allowing for high-speed interconnections called HTX or hyper thread connections.
Another unusual characteristic is that each node has 16 gigabytes of memory or a total of 1.4 terabytes of memory. In addition, infinite band [sic] technology makes the computer especially fast, moving “packages” of information with a lag time or latency of 2.9-microseconds—the fastest rate possible. The computer, which will have 36 terabytes of storage space, will operate at its maximum capacity 24 hours a day for four to five years.
RIT scientist Manuela Campanelli leads the team that solved the 10 equations in Einstein’s theory of general relativity for strong field gravity in 2005. I’m not a physicist, but that sounds like good stuff to me.
More at SC Online.
» UCF Lands Its First Supercomputer
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