MHPCC Doubles Its Computing Power

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On Friday, August 21, the Maui High Performance Computing Center Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center [MHPCC DSRC] hosted a dedication ceremony for its latest supercomputing system.  “Mana”, as its called, will replace the previous system, Jaws.  “Mana” is the Hawaiian word for power and authority.

High-performance computing is powering breakthrough discovery,” said DSRC Executive Director Gene Bal. “Current state-of-the-art systems, software, tools and expertise are advancing our nation’s technological dominance in the 21st Century. Researchers are harnessing the power of these key enabling technologies, and leading the transformation of advanced technology concepts into critical national security capability. MHPCC stands ready to deliver these world-class technologies, accelerating our nation’s ability to meet its most demanding challenges.”

The new system consists of 1,152 Dell M610 node blades.  Each blade holds two, 2.8Ghz Intel quad-core Nehalem processors and 24GB of memory [3GB/core].  The total 9,216 cores has over 103TF of compute capability.  Included with the install was 400TB of spinning disks behind a DataDirect Networks raid controller.

Mana can do more calculations in one second than 1,000 scientists can do in 3,200 years at the rate of one calculation per second each,” said MHPCC Acting Director David L. Stinson. “The 400-terabyte disk storage has the capacity to store more than 40 times the entire printed works of the Library of Congress.” “Mana is currently about the 45th most powerful computer in the world,” Stinson added.

For more info on the new digs in Maui, read the full article here.