HPCwire: Wolfram to Provide Cloud Computing for HPC Tasks

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November 05, 2008

Wolfram to Provide Cloud Computing for HPC Tasks

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill., Nov. 5 -- Wolfram Research announced an initiative today to develop a cloud computing service for users of their flagship technical computing software Mathematica. This project is a collaborative effort by Wolfram Research, Nimbis Services, Inc., a clearing-house for accessing third party compute resources and commercial software, and R Systems NA, Inc., a provider of computing resources to the commercial and academic research community.

According to Deborah Wince-Smith, president of the Council on Competitiveness, "High-performance computing systems (HPC) remain a largely underutilized competitiveness asset in the United States for the majority of companies. Opening access to HPC represents a huge productivity opportunity for the nation and a competitiveness transformation challenge." The collaboration of Wolfram Research, Nimbis Services, and R Systems will make the transition from desktop to HPC systems easier for Mathematica users by providing efficiently structured access to larger, more powerful computing systems.

Nimbis Services will enable the Mathematica cloud service to access many diverse HPC systems, including TOP500 supercomputers and the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Nimbis Services, Inc. President and CEO Robert Graybill echoes the council's views on HPC systems and explains that the foundational principle of Nimbis Services is to focus on "ease of use" by providing experimental and periodic business users the choice of large-scale computing service alternatives, all in one "instant" computing storefront.

"Our partnership with Wolfram Research immensely benefits software users attempting to increase efficiency and capacity," says R Systems founder Brian Kucic. "As Mathematica users seek to extend resource capacity, the exceptionally large memory of our multicore HPC resources and the double-data rate and quad-data rate InfiniBand network will increase performance." HPC resources such as the R Smarr cluster by R Systems, Inc., which was recently named the 44th fastest system on the TOP500 list for supercomputing pioneers, are responsible for bringing HPC technology to the forefront.

The Mathematica cloud computing service will provide flexible and scalable access to HPC from within Mathematica, simplifying the transition from desktop technical computing to HPC. "The two largest challenges in using HPC are programming the HPC application itself and ensuring that you can get enough computing power to do the job," says Tom Wickham-Jones, Wolfram Research executive director of kernel technology. "Mathematica answers the programming challenge by providing an integrated technical computing platform, enabling computation, visualization, and data access. Cloud computing offers consistent access to large-scale computing capabilities. We are excited to be working with Nimbis and R Systems to offer HPC access to our customers."

About Wolfram Research

Wolfram Research is the world's leading developer of computational software for science and technology, offering organization-wide computing solutions. Led by Mathematica, its flagship product, the company's software is relied on today by several million enthusiastic users around the world and has been the recipient of many industry awards. Wolfram Research was founded in 1987 by Stephen Wolfram, who continues to lead the company today. The company is headquartered in the United States, with offices in Europe and Japan. Go to www.wolfram.com for more information about Wolfram Research and its products.

About Nimbis Services, Inc.

Nimbis Services, Inc., is a start-up company in the digital analysis computing (DAC) industry that connects its clients transparently through an industry-wide clearing-house with computing services, software, and expertise. The primary goal is to provide low-risk, low-effort, "pay-as-you-go" access to DAC for small to midsize companies that are currently unable to move beyond technical computing on the desktop. Nimbis partners with the world's leading computing services companies to provide experimental and periodic users with a choice, growing menu of pre-qualified, pre-negotiated services from HPC cycle providers, independent software vendors, domain experts, and regional solution providers, delivered on a "pay-as-you-go" basis. For additional information, visit www.nimbisservices.com.

About R Systems

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