TeraGrid is a multi-year effort to build and deploy the world's largest, fastest, distributed infrastructure for open scientific research. When completed, the TeraGrid will include 20 teraflops of computing power distributed at five sites, facilities capable of managing and storing nearly 1 petabyte of data, high-resolution visualization environments, and toolkits for grid computing. These components will be tightly integrated and connected through a network that will operate at 40 gigabits per second - the fastest research network on the planet.
In September 2003, TACC was awarded $3.2 million to establish a 10-gigabit-per second network connection from Austin, Texas. TACC is contributing access to high-end computers capable of 6.2 teraflops, its new terascale visualization system, the center's 2.8-petabyte mass storage system and geoscience data collections. These collections include high-resolution digital terrain data, worldwide hydrological data, global gravity data and high-resolution X-ray computed tomography data, which are invaluable research tools for scientists in environmental, geological, climate and biological research programs.
High Performance Computing Across Texas (HiPCAT)
High Performance Computing Across Texas (HiPCAT) is a
consortium of Texas institutions that use
advanced computational technologies to enhance research, development, and educational activities.
These advanced computational technologies include traditional high performance computing
(HPC) systems and clusters, and also complementary advanced computing technologies
including massive data storage systems and scientific visualization resources. The
advent of computational grids -- based on high speed networks connecting computing
resources and grid 'middleware' running on these resources to integrate them into 'grids' -- has
enabled the coordinated, concurrent usage of multiple resources/systems and stimulated new methods
of computing and collaboration. HiPCAT institutions support the development, deployment, and
utilization of all of these advanced computing technologies to enable Texas researchers to address
the most challenging computational problems. The current members are:
- Baylor College of Medicine
- Rice University
- Texas A&M University
- Texas Tech University
- University of Houston
- University of Texas at Arlington
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Texas at El Paso
- University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
- University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
IBM SP Scientific Computing User Group (SCICOMP)
SCICOMP is an international user group for
scientific/technical users of IBM SP computing systems. SCICOMP holds two meetings every year: one
in the US, and one in Europe. SCICOMP brings together IBM SP users from around the world to
discuss techniques for developing effective applications, share concerns and issues, and discuss
problems with each other and with IBM technical staff. IBM sends many technical experts to SCICOMP
meetings to provide training and technical information and to answer questions.
IBM SP-XXL is an
organization comprised of computing centers that operate large IBM HPC systems.
SP-XXL meets a few times per year
with the goal of discussing issues in running and using IBM HPC systems with each other and with
executive and technical staff in IBM in order to develop prioritized requests for IBM to address.
Coalition for Academic Scientific Computation (CASC)
CASC provides an opportunity for
universities that deploy advanced computing systems to meet to discuss issues, particularly
government funding plans and methods for increasing government spending for academic computing.
Supercomputing Online provides the
latest news from companies, universities, and government agencies on developments in the high
performance computing (HPC) industry. The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is proud to be a
charter member of Supercomputing Online, which offers comprehensive coverage of the field.
The Cray User Group (CUG) is an independent, volunteer-organized,
international corporation of member organizations that own or use Cray or SGI computer systems with
emphasis on high-performance, technical computing, and visualization. CUG's mission is to provide the
high performance computing community with leadership and information exchange to enable the
development and effective use of Cray and SGI computational tools in achieving the business and
research objectives of CUG Members.
Dell XL is a self-sustained consortium of computing centers that employ large-scale Dell systems. With the participation of Dell and Dell partners, the consortium members meet twice a year to exchange technology information and cooperate on projects to enhance the scalability of cluster computing.