SCD News: February 4, 2005

SCD takes delivery on new supercomputer for Antarctic weather forecasts

"Pegasus" has a peak computational capability of nearly 580 gigaflops

Aaron Andersen, manager of SCDs Enterprise Services Section, oversees IBM site engineers as they move the first frame of the new IBM e350 system into place. Larger photo and caption

T he Scientific Computing Division, part of NCAR's Computational Science and Information Systems Laboratory, took delivery on a a new IBM e1350 supercomputer named "pegasus" on January 31, 2005. NCAR scientists will use the new machine to run the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS), a computer model based at NCAR that will issue operational forecasts for researchers stationed in Antarctica.

"The IBM e1350 system acquired to support AMPS is a relatively inexpensive yet powerful supercomputer," says Tom Engel, an SCD high-performance computing specialist. "It's designed to meet near-term modeling needs, but it can also be expanded to accommodate possible future increases in AMPS model resolution and complexity."

With 132 processors, a clock speed of 2200 MHz, and a peak computational capability of nearly 580 gigaflops, pegasus will be able to run a 20-kilometer (12-mile) version of AMPS about four times faster than the current system runs a coarser 30-km (19-mile) version. The machine also has more than 270 gigabytes of memory and 3 terabytes of disk capacity. It will be connected to NCAR's massive data storage system and local area network via Ethernet links.

The National Science Foundation, NCAR's primary sponsor, funded the computer through a special award from its Division of Atmospheric Sciences, with research support from the NSF Office of Polar Programs.

SCD began configuring the system directly after its installation.

Photo gallery

     http://www.scd.ucar.edu/news/05/lead/amps/index.htm

More on AMPS

For more on AMPS, see the UCAR press release at:

     http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2005/computer.shtml

NCAR is operated by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) under the primary sponsorship of the National Science Foundation.

Photos: Lynda Lester and Gary New, NCAR/SCD