NASA to Deploy an SGI Supercomputer

May 7, 2008: NASA has chosen SGI to supply the space research organisation with their next major supercomputer.

The National Aeoronautics and Space Administration (NASA) have inked a deal with SGI to supply their Ames Research Center with a brand new supercomputer. The 20,480-core Altix ICE system was chosen from a tender process where the SGI offering won out.

"NASA's four mission directorates face computing challenges of unprecedented complexity, and these challenges present unique, even monumental compute requirements," said Dr. Rupak Biswas, acting chief of the NAS Division. "Just as Columbia has helped NASA achieve breakthroughs that were previously impossible, this new supercomputer will enable NASA to continue tapping the far limits of science and innovation."

NASA's plan to resume manned missions to the moon is one of the main motivations for plugging in the new supercomputer, with eventual plans to send manned missions to Mars.

“This new SGI Altix ICE system will help the agency carry humankind further into space, better understand the future that awaits our planet, and improve the quality of life for people around the world," said Robert "Bo" Ewald, CEO at SGI.

The supercomputer will be built on a blade enclosure with 40 racks, each with 512 Intel processor cores and 512GB of memory. NASA's new system is expected to vault up the supercomputing charts, where SGI's current highest is the 3rd placed 14,336-core Altix ICE in New Mexico.

"Every day NASA makes history, forging a new path in the journey to understand the world and its place in the universe," said Diane M. Bryant, vice president of Intel's Digital Enterprise Group and general manager or Server Platforms Group. "Working with SGI, Intel has ensured that our leading-edge processor architectures serve as the essential engine in creating history. It is exciting to imagine the breakthroughs this remarkable new system will enable, and what those discoveries will mean for all of us."

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