HPCwire: Golden Energy Computing Organization Established

The Leading Source for Global News and Information Covering the Ecosystem of High Productivity Computing

Leading HPC
Solution Providers

HPCwire >> Industry >> Government

May 12, 2008

Golden Energy Computing Organization Established

GOLDEN, Colo., May 12 -- The Colorado School of Mines along with its partners, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, has established the Golden Energy Computing Organization (GECO). This is a high performance computing group dedicated to energy science research. The four GECO research missions are to: pursue renewable resources; locate and develop existing resources; advance environmental stewardship; and, design new energy-related materials.

The Colorado School of Mines is hosting the primary computational resource for the collaboratory. Because of the energy science focus, the machine is aptly named Ra after the ancient Egyptian sun god. Ra is a Dell cluster with integration by X-ISS. It is a 268-node Rocks-based cluster containing Intel quad-core processors for a total of 2,144 cores, 5.7 terabytes of memory and a peak computational speed of 23 teraflops. Communication is handled using an InfiniBand fabric.

The May 9th dedication of Ra was officiated by Dr. Mark Lusk, the director of GECO. He highlighted the initial eight research projects that will have early access to Ra: characterization of hydrocarbon deposits; hydrate nucleation and growth; biomass conversion; photoelectrochemical production of hydrogen; next generation polymer batteries; ultracold designer solid state systems; prediction of climate changes; and, CO2 sequestration.

Education and outreach will be an important part of GECO. Dr. Lusk noted that "Our strategic goals are to hire new HPC faculty, offer new courses, and to provide five-year educational programs and a Ph.D. minor in High Performance Computing have already started to be realized ... A multi-faceted outreach program has been established to maximize the benefit of the GECO facility to underrepresented groups. For example, Salish Kootenai College, on the Flathead Indian Reservation, is a partner in this activity. The interaction is intended to enhance the educational experience of students in SKC's recently established B.S. degree in Computer Engineering. On a local front, special training and research opportunities will be made available to the CSM Society for Women Engineers."

GECO will offer their first HPC training class in June. Campus interest in the machine is high. Dr. Tim Kaiser, the university's director of HPC reported that: "We had almost four times as many people sign up for the class as we have space and will end up teaching introductory classes throughout the summer."

GECO is already looking to the future. Plans are underway for an Earth Energy Institute Building, which will have an extended machine room floor for follow on machines along with additional space for staffing, students and breakout facilities.

-----

Source: Colorado School of Mines

Article Tools

Share & Save Options

Discussion

There are 0 discussion items posted.

Join the Discussion

You must be a registered user in order to comment on HPCWire stories.

Members enjoy:

	Access to Special Content, including Podcasts, Webcasts, and Whitepapers and more!
	Ability to take an active role in the discussions that are shaping the HPC technology discipline!
	Special offers available only to HPCWire members!

Become a Registered User Today!

Registered Users Log in Here to Comment

Email Address:	Password (case sensitive)

Remember me	Forgot Password?

RSS Feeds

Feeds by Topic

Feeds by Industry

Feeds by Content Type

Feature Articles

The Linux HPC Empire Strikes Back

While the Microsoft juggernaut has been touting the joys of its new Windows HPC Server 2008, the Linux HPC contingent has been somewhat less vocal of late. But now Red Hat has come up with its version of an integrated cluster solution.
Read More...

Nexsan Looks to Scare Up HPC Customers With Storage Beast

Even though the cost of servers still dominates the datacenter budget, storage is actually on a steeper growth curve. HPC storage, in particular, is being singled out as high-growth opportunity. Vendors are scrambling to keep up.
Read More...

The Week in Review

Google datacenters most energy efficient; Cluster Resources to demo Moab Hybrid Cluster; Red Hat Linux releases HPC distro. John West recaps those stories and more in our weekly wrap-up.
Read More...

Read more HPCwire features...

Top Headlines

AMD to Split Into Two Operations

Oct 07 | The New York Times | Advanced Micro Devices said Tuesday that it would split into two companies — one focused on designing microprocessors and the other on the costly business of manufacturing them. Read more...

Lustre to Battle Corruption

Oct 07 | GCN.com | Sun Microsystems has been busy building a lot more intelligence into Lustre, a file system used for large-scale cluster computing. Read more...

Oracle and HP's Database Machine Predicated on Voltaire

Oct 06 | The Register | Does the HP Oracle Database Machine represent InfiniBand's big chance to break out its HPC niche? Read more...

3D Imaging Spreads to Fashion and Beyond

Oct 06 | BusinessWeek | A body scan can save a lot of time in the fitting room, and fields from medicine to architecture are adopting 3D computing applications. Read more...

Structural Engineers and Computer Scientists Hope to Integrate Disciplines to 'Revolutionize Building Construction'

Oct 03 | UCSD News | Despite the evolution of computer science over the past 30 years, structural engineering -- hindered by a reluctance to adapt to digital innovations -- has remained relatively unchanged as a discipline. Read more...

Read more headlines...

Featured Whitepapers

Panasas® Tiered Parity™ Architecture

Sep 04 | | Disk drives are approximately 250 times denser today than a decade ago. This is good news for users who are creating, manipulating and storing more data than ever before. It gives them an opportunity to derive more value from their stored data and lowers the capital acquisition and operating expense associated with that data.

View the White Paper Library

Multimedia

Video White Paper: Architecting a Better Network Storage Solution

BlueArc's Titan architecture represents an evolutionary step in file servers by creating a hardware-based file system that can scale bandwidth, IOPS, and overall data capacity well beyond conventional software-based devices. With its ability to virtualize a massive storage pool of up to four usable petabytes of tiered storage, Titan can scale with growing data requirements, offering a competitive advantage for businesses, researchers, or other enterprises seeking to better manage data growth while still ensuring optimal performance.