Supercomputer uses less energy
>>Print ViewPublication Date: 06/13/2008
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Going green is not limited to buying energy-efficient light bulbs or driving a hybrid car. Now, even huge computers can even become more environmentally friendly.
The new supercomputer, installed this week at Purdue and built by the company SiCortex, is just as powerful as the traditional supercomputers; it just uses less energy.
Gerry McCartney, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Purdue, said one of the benefits of the new supercomputer is that it uses 40 times less power than the traditional ones.
"The amount of energy the machine uses reduces the cost to run it significantly," McCartney said. "Often now we keep machines for about four to five years and around that time, the cost of running it becomes more than the cost of buying the computer."
McCartney said the major benefit of the machine is its energy-efficient quality.
"It's like a car that gets 300 miles a gallon and someone asks 'what are the other benefits?'", he said. "There aren't any; the benefit is that it gets 300 miles a gallon."
These supercomputers are often used for solving big science and engineering problems that don't have the ability to be solved on a conventionally sized machine.
Gerhard Klimeck, associate director for the Network for Computational Nanotechnology, has been conducting research on the new machine.
"On day one we benchmarked a major part of the machine and demonstrated that it can execute a single program effectively," Klimeck said.
McCartney said the air conditioning needed for the computer is just as significant as the power the computer uses.
"The more power we use, the more we have to cool it down," he said. "Imagine 10 thousand laptops on your lap, that would get hot."
Compared to a desktop PC that at best has the ability to use a quad core, the supercomputer uses about 6,400 cores.
"The supercomputer uses 812 nodes," Klimeck said. "In principle each node is, traditionally speaking, just a PC; what is special is these nodes are racked up and connected by a dedicated network."
Klimeck said this new supercomputer and its research can lead the nation on how to invest in information technology structure.
"What is unique here is that several organizations and faculty members on campus have gathered together to build a community culture," he said. "Many campuses in the U.S. are also interested in how to support the computing demands."
McCartney said Purdue is a great place for the supercomputer research.
"Everyone understands in this industry that energy is an issue," he said. "We are trying to find solutions with a new company and a new product because that's where Purdue belongs: with people who are looking for solutions."