Princeton Plans New HPC Facility at Forrestal

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Princeton University announced plans today to build a new HPC facility.  The new HPC digs will be located on their Forrestal Campus right up Route 1 in Plainsboro, NJ.  That campus sound familiar?  The Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory [GFDL] is also located on the Forrestal Campus.  The new facility will serve as the home of TIGRESS, the Terascale Infrastructure for Groundbreaking Research in Engineering and Science Center.

Princeton’s research computing program is growing rapidly and across many disciplines, including astrophysical modeling of the universe, galaxy formation and star implosions; geophysical modeling of the propagation of seismological waves; chemical modeling of molecular dynamics; high-energy physical modeling of subatomic particle collisions and plasma and materials modeling to render fusion a practical source of clean energy; and biochemical, biostatistical and biomathematical modeling to design new drugs and to map genes and protein function,” said Curt Hillegas, director of TIGRESS.

The new facility will be comprised of three functional areas, encompassing nearly 40,000 sqft: a computing area; an electrical and mechanical support area; small office support area.  If all the approvals, planning and construction proceeds as expected, the facility will be operational 2011, staff by three people.

This growth accompanies the emergence of computation as a third mode of research in science and engineering, along with pure (analytic) theory and experiment/observation,” Hillegas said. “The required computational infrastructure to support the increased demand has outgrown the currently available data center resources on campus. This new high-performance research computing center will enable our continued leadership at the forefront of research in these areas, engaged in finding solutions of service to society.”

If you’re interested in more details surrounding the new HPC facility plans, read the Princeton 10-year campus plan.  In the mean time, read their full article here.