DEAS implements new supercomputer

The Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS) and IBM announced the implementation of CrimsonGridBGL. The system will currently rank among the top 50 fastest supercomputers in the world, according to the latest statistics gathered from the TOP500 Supercomputer Sites list.

The CrimsonGridBGL, offering a peak performance of 11 trillion floating point calculations per second (teraflops), will help faculty and researchers explore multiscale computational science and applications across a variety of disciplines.

“Increasingly sophisticated computational tools and mutually reinforcing industry collaborations are instrumental to the success and advancement of research across all areas,” said Venkatesh Narayanamurti, dean of Engineering and Applied Sciences. “The new system comes at an ideal time for us and complements the University’s plans to dramatically increase its investments in science and engineering.”

The initial projects involving the new platform are likely to be dedicated to modeling complex, vast systems or events such as the human hemodynamic (blood circulation) system; cell self-assembly and tissue morphogenesis as they relate to fundamental processes underlying cardiac organogenesis (the development of the heart); computer system behavior; the mechanical response of materials used in advanced integrated circuits; and the formation history of galaxies.