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8-25-2006 University Of Tennesse supercomputer upgrades performance
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The most powerful supercomputer available for general scientific research in the United States has undergone an upgrade that's doubled its peak performance.
The Cray XT3 supercomputer at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory can now perform up to 54 trillion calculations per second ? up from its previous peak of 25 trillion calculations, or teraflops, lab officials said Friday.
"It is probably the fifth-fastest machine" in the world, said Thomas Zacharia, associate laboratory director. "It is clearly the fastest open-science machine in the U.S. today."
The supercomputer, dubbed "Jaguar," was previously ranked the 13th most powerful in a list compiled by computer scientists at the University of Mannheim, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.
The upgrade unveiled Friday involved replacing all 5,212 microprocessors ? the system's brains ? with Cray's latest microprocessors, which feature two computing engines on a single chip. Engineers also doubled the memory and added more high-bandwidth cables.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. is interested in using the machine to develop new algorithms for duplicating the effects of light and shade ? called "ray tracing" ? in 3-D animation, Zacharia said.
Boeing Co. is hoping the supercomputer will lead to lighter, more energy-efficient airplanes, and General Atomics Co. wants to do fusion energy research.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. - The most powerful supercomputer available for general scientific research in the United States has undergone an upgrade that's doubled its peak performance.
The Cray XT3 supercomputer at Tennessee's Oak Ridge National Laboratory can now perform up to 54 trillion calculations per second ? up from its previous peak of 25 trillion calculations, or teraflops, lab officials said Friday.
"It is probably the fifth-fastest machine" in the world, said Thomas Zacharia, associate laboratory director. "It is clearly the fastest open-science machine in the U.S. today."
The supercomputer, dubbed "Jaguar," was previously ranked the 13th most powerful in a list compiled by computer scientists at the University of Mannheim, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee.
The upgrade unveiled Friday involved replacing all 5,212 microprocessors ? the system's brains ? with Cray's latest microprocessors, which feature two computing engines on a single chip. Engineers also doubled the memory and added more high-bandwidth cables.
DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. is interested in using the machine to develop new algorithms for duplicating the effects of light and shade ? called "ray tracing" ? in 3-D animation, Zacharia said.
Boeing Co. is hoping the supercomputer will lead to lighter, more energy-efficient airplanes, and General Atomics Co. wants to do fusion energy research.
