68 IBM Nighthawks roost at Exeter University

Exeter 10 Jan 00 Exeter university unveiled its latest supecomputer acquisition, an IBM RS/6000 SP with 68 Power 3 processors, (christened by IBM as the Nighthawk), with a peak performance of 55 Gflop/s. This machine is capable of holding more data than the British Library, (1 TeraByte), rated at about 350 in the Top-500 list, is 20th most powerful in the UK and second only to the Hitachi machine at Cambridge for a single university system. According to the Vice Chancellor, Sir Geoffrey Holland, the new system will be used by 11 research groups within the University of Exeter. He said: IBM is a partner to our research and will help the groups to develop computing strategies to tackle these projects. In all cases it will enable researchers to significantly increase the range and depth of their work. That is why this machine is such an asset to a research-driven university such as ours". Examples of projects which include, Jupiter's Weather anti-counterfeit measures and mine safety are given below. An interview with Michel Teyssedre, the IBM RS/6000 worldwide director of marketing is published separately in Primeur.

One of the projects to be run on the new RS/6000 is concerned with analysing information from the Gallileo space probe to model Jupiter's weather patterns. Modelling Jupiter's winds -often at speeds of up to 200mph - has been difficult up to now, but the extra power of the new system will allow fully three-dimensional simulations of Jupiter's atmosphere and improve the current understanding of Jupiter's deep interior. There is also a plan to develop models of the flows on Saturn, hopefully in time for the arrival of the Cassini mission at Saturn in 2004.

Anti-counterfeit measures

The RS/6000 SP is being used to study the interaction of light with micro-structured surfaces. Possibly the most elaborate of these are structures found in butterfly wing scales. Extensive numerical modelling is needed to develop new synthetic structures to recreate these natural phenomena. This work, sponsored by BBSRC and the Ministry of Defense, will lead to new optical devices for use in areas such as communications and anti-counterfeit measures.

Thin Film Photonics

This research includes increasing the switching speed and brightness for the next generation of liquid crystal displays. The new research, is in collaboration with Sharp, one of the major players in producing liquid crystal displays and is directly aimed at characterising fast optical switching in these new generation devices.

Mine Safety

To ensure the safety of mine workers it is vital that engineering calculations are accurate, especially with mines as deep as 5Km. The greatest cause of uncertainty in mining engineering calculations is the cracks found in all types of rock, particularly those close to the ground surface. The Camborne School of Mines is planning to conduct calculations for volumes of rock as large as 100 cubic kilometres with realistic rock behaviour and a level of detail of a few tenths of centimetres.These computations will minimise the likelihood of subsidence at the surface and hopefully ensure the safety of mine workers.

Flexible Pricing

The IBM system delivered to Exeter has a list price of around euro 3 Million, a large sum for a single university. The way round it lies in a three way split between Exeter university the Joint Research Equipment Initiative, (JREI), the government Quango funding computers in British universities, and a substantial discount by IBM as their part of the collaboration deal. As Dr. Laurie Burbridge, director of IT at Exeter said: "We put a lot of effort to get the infrastructure right, with the 155 Mbit/s ATM netwok in place and the readiness to convert to the 600 Mbit SuperJanet once available. This positioning payed off as it put as in a good light and gave our researchers the edge when competing for JREI funding".

Michel Teyssedre, IBM RS/6000 marketing director of the worldwide server field, adds: "Exeter University has developed a reputation as a world class research centre and we believe the acquisition of the IBM RS/6000 SP supercomputer will allow the institution to enhance this status. In particular, we are delighted that the power of the new machine will be able to assist the research teams as they perform investigations of global significance in areas as diverse as astronomy, physics, mining and medicine".

For more information:

For more information about their research, visit the university of Exeter Web site URL: www.ex.ac.uk/ ).

Chris Lazou

[News on Advanced IT] [Calendar] [Analysis] [IT in Medicine]