About

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is one of the leading centers of computational excellence in the United States. Located on the J.J. Pickle Research Campus, the center's mission is to enable discoveries that advance science and society through the application of advanced computing technologies.

To fulfill this mission, TACC identifies, evaluates, deploys, and supports powerful computing, visualization, and storage systems and software. TACC staff help researchers and educators use these technologies effectively, and conduct research and development to make these technologies more powerful, more reliable, and easier to use. TACC staff also help encourage, educate, and train the next generation of researchers, empowering them to make discoveries that change the world.

Founded in 2001, TACC has expanded at a tremendous rate over the past ten years. From a staff of only a dozen and one mid-level Cray supercomputer, TACC has grown to more than 110 staff and students and now operates several of the most powerful supercomputers and visualization systems in the world, and the network and data storage infrastructure to support them.

Computational science has become the third pillar of scientific discovery, complementing theory and physical experimentation, allowing scientists to explore phenomenon that are too big, small, fast, or dangerous to investigate in the laboratory. Thousands of researchers each year use the computing resources available at TACC to forecast weather and environmental disasters such as the BP oil spill, produce whole-Earth simulations of plate tectonics, and perform other important research.

TACC is supported by the National Science Foundation, The University of Texas at Austin, UT System, and grants from other federal agencies. As a leading resource provider in the NSF XSEDE project, TACC is one of 11 centers across the country providing leadership-class computing resources to the national research community. TACC also partners with the Department of Energy, the National Archives and Records Administration, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on socially significant research projects.

TACC works closely with industry and the academic community to develop new computing architectures and software technologies, and promotes science and technology breakthroughs to the public through education, outreach and training events. As we continue to move towards a world where advanced computing is ubiquitous in the conduct of science and engineering, TACC will be at the vanguard of this transformation.