Durham University recreates the universe with Esteem supercomputerDurham 21 August 2001 Esteem Systems plc, has designed and installed a new IT system for Durham University's Physics Department that will enable the reconstruction of the universe. The machine will be used to extract data from billions of astronomical observations, and analyse how galaxies and solar systems have evolved. With the help of the 'supercomputer', which consists of a Sun Microsystems Sun Fire 6800 and a cluster of 64 Sun Microsystems Sun Blade 1000s, researchers at the University hope to be able to trace events right back to the Big Bang.
With the power to simulate virtual universes, the GBP1.4 million investment will set
new standards in scientific research and maintain Durham's reputation as the
leading centre for research into the origin and evolution of the universe.
Esteem was selected to support Durham University following a competitive tender
process whereby the company's status as one of Sun's premier Academic Partners,
and its ability to deliver a bespoke IT solution in line with the University's
requirements, made it the natural choice.
Designed to perform in data centre environments, the recommended Sun Fire 6800
server provides mainframe capabilities plus midframe availability and
affordability. The server features 24 UltraSPARC III processors and 48
gigabytes of memory. Ideal for server consolidation, data warehousing and large
databases, the Sun Fire is the perfect storage solution to fulfil Durham's data
management requirements.
In addition to the Sun Fire, Esteem prescribed a high performance 128 CPU
cluster consisting of 64 Sun Blade 1000s, to cope with the processing power
required by Durham University. Run on two 750-MHz UltraSPARC-III CPUs, each of
the Sun Blades provides; outstanding flexibility in memory; high processing
speed and bandwidth; high end graphics and a capacity of 8-GB RAM. The cluster
allows arithmetic calculations to be completed at the incredible rate of 456
billion operations per second.
Esteem Systems works extensively within the high performance computing arena
providing tailored solutions to increase the efficiency of day-to-day operations
and enable data management and research aspirations to be realised.
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