University Times

The Pittsburgh Supercom-puting Center (PSC) will build one of the world's fastest computers, thanks to a $45 million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF).

A joint effort of Pitt, Carnegie Mellon and the Westinghouse Electric Co., the PSC will develop "terascale" computing capability for U.S. scientists and engineers. Terascale refers to computational speed beyond a "teraflop," which is a trillion calculations per second.

Although terascale systems are in place for classified nuclear weapons research, the PSC system is expected to be the most powerful to date designed as an open resource for researchers.

Scientists studying a wide range of problems, including drug design, engine design, weather forecasting, earthquake modeling and modeling of global climate shifts, will be able to take advantage of the new supercomputer's computational power.

The NSF approved the three-year award Aug. 3. Beginning Oct. 1, PSC will work with Compaq Computer Corp. to assemble the terascale computing system at the Westinghouse Energy Center in Monroeville.

"We're pleased that NSF's terascale initiative gives us this opportunity to use PSC's proven capability in high-performance computing, communications and informatics in support of the national research effort," said PSC scientific directors and physicists Ralph Roskies, of Pitt, and Michael Levine, of Carnegie Mellon, in a joint statement released by the supercomputing center. "Working in partnership with Compaq, we'll create a system that enables U.S. researchers to attack the most computationally challenging problems in engineering and science."

The new Pittsburgh computer is expected to begin operation next February, initially operating at speeds of about 0.4 teraflops, and would reach its peak performance of six teraflops when all the AlphaServers are in place by the end of 2001.

The "brain" of the proposed teraflop system will be an interconnected network of 682 Compaq AlphaServers, each of which contains four Compaq Alpha microprocessors. Plans call for boosting the speed to 20 teraflops within a couple years.

"A gap exists between the computing resources available to the classified world and the open scientific community," said Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg. "It is ideal that PSC, a world leader in acquiring and deploying early the most powerful computers for science and engineering, can contribute to filling this gap. This award also demonstrates the unique scientific strengths that exist in Pittsburgh when its major research universities partner with each other and with leaders in industry."

The Pittsburgh center receives $2 million annually from the state and is supported by several federal agencies, including the Department of Energy, and private industry.