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May 06, 2008
Dell High-Performance Computer Installed at Purdue University
By Michael Dinan TMCnet Editor
The university whose alumni include the first and last men on the moon today saw a new high-performance computer system installed on its main campus in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Purdue University’s (News - Alert) so-called “high-performance computing cluster,” or HPCC, created and installed by a global systems and services company, will serve faculty and students doing research in fields such as engineering, math and physics, officials say.
Officials at the school say the system, from Dell (News - Alert), is expected to expand the reach of the university known for being the first in the nation to establish a computer science department, in 1962.
“This new supercomputer will enhance Purdue’s research capabilities and support our efforts to make significant advances in a variety of areas, from designing new drugs and materials to learning the structures of disease-causing viruses," said Gerry McCartney, Purdue’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer.
The system consists of 812 Dell PowerEdge 1950 dual quad-core computer nodes. Dell officials say it will be able to perform more than 60 trillion operations in one second.
John Mullen, vice president of higher education at Dell, hailed Purdue for investing in technology in order to conduct research.
“High-performance computing is supporting research that benefits society, and the work that Purdue researchers are driving will yield new insights and discoveries for years to come,” Mullen said.
Accolades for feats in information technology are nothing new at Purdue.
According to the university’s Web site, The Purdue Research Park has been named the outstanding park in the country by the Association of University Research Parks. The park is home to more than 70 technology-based companies and has emerged as a hub of new business development for Central Indiana.
Also according to the Web site, the school’s 13-year-old Engineering Projects in Community Service program sees groups of undergraduates earn academic credit for multi-year, multi-disciplinary projects that solve engineering and technology-based problems for community service and education organizations.
The first and last men on the moon were Neil Armstrong (1969) and Gene Cernan (1972).
Michael Dinan is a TMCNet Editor. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.
