Green Light for Science Supercomputer

Ushering in a new era in supercomputing that could advance everything from earthquake prediction to complex biological research, the National Science Board on Thursday approved a three-year, $53 million grant to build what is expected to be the world's largest distributed computing system.

Using Intel chips and IBM hardware and software, the Distributed Terascale Facility, dubbed "TeraGrid" for its massive power spread over several sites, is slated to be operational by mid-2002. It will reach its full speed of 13.6 trillion operations per second by April 2003, making it one of the 10 most powerful supercomputers in the world.

Scientists and engineers in a range of fields, from earthquake predictors to geneticists, can vie for time on the system through a peer-review process.

"This is truly a new mode of operation," said Ruzena Bajcsy, director of computer and information science and engineering at the National Science Foundation, which is administering the grant. "You are building a new facility, a new device, in a way that has never been done. This is the beginning of a national cyber-infrastructure," Bajcsy said during a conference call announcing the grant.

Distributed computing has gradually grown in popularity, as academic scientists and businesses seek ways to put the computer power that goes to waste each day to good use. Popular programs use excess power to search for extraterrestrials and to research new AIDS drugs.

TeraGrid, however, is far more ambitious. Instead of culling excess power, it will connect computers dedicated entirely to TeraGrid. Four centers are receiving NSF funding for the grid: the National Center for Supercomputing Applications in Urbana, Ill.; the San Diego Supercomputer Center in San Diego; the Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Ill.; and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Leading the program is Rick Stevens, director of the mathematics and computer science in Argonne. He will coordinate activities of not only the four centers, but also the more than one hundred additional institutions from which computer power will be drawn.

Intel anticipates that it will supply 3,300 processors. IBM will provide the 600 terabytes of storage capacity, enough to hold 146 million novels.

The grid will have the ability to manage massive calculations such as those for storm and earthquake prediction, as well as those needed to simulate automobile crashes. The grid will also be able to create models of diseases, a complex process.

Although TeraGrid is intended for the academic community, San Diego Supercomputing Center Director Fran Berman said in the conference call that strong ties between academia and industry make it likely that corporations, including pharmaceutical companies, would take advantage of the system or, perhaps, begin building their own internally.