Oak Ridge National Laboratory and IBM to collaborate on next generation computers

That kind of computing power has incredible implications for studying climate, advancing the field of nanotechnology and gaining a better understanding of gene sequences and how folding of proteins relates to diseases.

"Proteins control all processes occurring in the cells of the body," said Joe Jasinski, manager, Computational Biology Center for IBM Research. "These proteins are made up of a vast array of different combinations of amino acids that fold and bend into very complex three-dimensional shapes that determine the exact function of each protein.

IBM and ORNL hope to use this enormous computing power to explore numerous other areas as well. This effort merely represents the beginning of what is expected to be a long relationship.

Because the project is a collaboration of ORNL's Life Sciences and Computer Science and Mathematics divisions and IBM, it draws from a sizeable pool of resources. The project also provides ORNL with new challenges.

Indeed, before it is possible to solve problems in biology, climate and nanotechnology, scientists have to devise methods to run applications that use tens of thousands of processors in the Blue Gene supercomputer. Each processor forms a cell with memory, communication and input/output built in. This approach departs from past designs and offers a glimpse of what's to come in high-performance computing.

Funding for the CRADA is being provided by DOE and IBM. ORNL is a DOE multiprogram facility operated by UT-Battelle. IBM Research is the world's largest information technology research organization with more than 3,000 scientists and engineers at eight labs in six countries.