Supercomputer brings natural disasters to Queensland Unis - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Supercomputer brings natural disasters to Queensland Unis

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
February 11, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Supercomputer-brings-natural-disasters-to-Queensland-Unis/0,139023166,120263387,00.htm

A consortium of Queensland Universities has invested $4 million in a new supercomputer propelling Australian researches to the cutting edge of scientific research.

The supercomputer (SGI Origin 3000) will provide immersive 3D visualisation capability that will allow researchers to simulate natural disasters such as earthquakes, create virtual environments to test theories for the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef, and help with genetic research and drug design. It will also allow an engineer designing a bridge to view potential stress and strain and modify his design accordingly.

The six universities, known collectively as the Queensland Parallel Supercomputing Foundation (QPSF), hope the deal with Silicon Graphics will make Queensland Researchers some of the most competitive in the world. -QPSF is keen to promote an environment that encourages industry and researchers to collaborate and work together, a factor that will increase our international competitiveness," said Andrew Lewis, acting CEO of QPSF.

-In harnessing the power of a large number of processes, supercomputers are able to tackle scientific problems much too complex for a normal computer" said Professor Kevin Burrage, director of the Advanced Computational Modelling Centre. The SGI Origin 3000 HPC system has 64 CPU's and 64 GB of memory.

-The government funding also enables QPSF to provide an integrated infrastructure that allows other universities and industries throughout the state to link up to the computing facility" said Lewis.