The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) is set to significantly boost its computing power, with the announcement that it will receive a new supercomputer, to be built by Dell later this year. The new system will be used to by researchers at OSC for a variety of workloads, from traditional disciplines such as computational science and engineering to bioinformatics and simulating virtual environments.
Chancellor John Carey today said the new system will increase the centre’s total computing capacity by a factor of four, while its storage capacity will be increased three-fold. The $9.7-million investment received approval in January and is part of a $12 million appropriation included in the 2014-15 Ohio biennial capital budget. The remainder of the fund is targeted for ancillary systems and facilities upgrades to support the new supercomputer.
Carey stated: 'From the time the Ohio Supercomputer Center was created in 1987, OSC has been charged with advancing research in academia and industry across the state through the provision of high performance computing services. Deploying this new system at the centre will give Ohio researchers a powerful new tool with which they can make amazing discoveries and innovative breakthroughs.'
OSC is a member of the Ohio Technology Consortium, the technology and information arm of the Ohio Department of Higher Education – a cabinet-level agency for the Governor of the State of Ohio that oversees higher education for the state.
The centre currently offers computational services via three supercomputer clusters: the HP/Intel Ruby Cluster, the HP/Intel Oakley Cluster and the IBM/AMD Glenn Cluster. The Glenn Cluster and part or all of Oakley will be retired soon to make sufficient space and power available for the new supercomputer.
David Hudak, interim executive director of OSC, highlighted that the acquisition would be just in time as the researchers had been working to the limits of the facilities computational resources for some time. Hudak said: ‘This major acquisition will make an enormous positive impact on the work of our clients, both academic and industrial,’ said David Hudak. ‘Our current systems are running near peak capacity most of the time. Ohio researchers are eager for this massive increase in computing power and storage space.’
