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Maui High-Performance Computing Center to Install 5,120-Processor Cluster Using Dell's Ninth Generation Servers; Texas Advanced Computing Center Doubles Size of Its Dell Cluster Using 9G Servers

Posted on: Wednesday, 16 August 2006, 12:00 CDT

The Maui High Performance Computing Center (MHPCC), an Air Force research laboratory center managed by the University of Hawaii, has announced that it will install a 5,120-processor high-performance computing cluster using Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) servers. The acquisition is the largest in the history of MHPCC and the first significant purchase from Dell.

MHPCC is a national resource chartered to help solve complex computational problems for the United States Department of Defense and other government users. The new cluster, made up of 1,280 Dell PowerEdge(TM) 1955 blade servers with dual-core processors, will increase computational capability to more than 60 teraflops.

"The computational capacity provided by Dell will advance MHPCC to the forefront of high performance computing and re-establish it among the leaders in the Department of Defense research and development community," said Gene Bal, executive director of MHPCC. "The new system will complement the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program's array of high performance computing resources."

TACC Enhances Research, Benchmarking Capabilities

In related news, the Dell benchmarking center at Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin recently announced that it has upgraded its Dell supercomputing cluster, Lonestar, using Dell PowerEdge 1955 blade servers. Doubling in size from 650 nodes to 1,300, the cluster will possess a peak performance of more than 55 teraflops when the system achieves full production status this fall.

"As one of the world's most powerful computing systems, the new Dell cluster, Lonestar, will extend researchers' capabilities for solving some the most interesting and challenging problems in science, while also enabling new research and development activities in areas such social sciences and humanities," said TACC director Dr. Jay Boisseau. "It will also be used by TACC researchers collaborating with leading companies to integrate advanced computing techniques into their research and development and improve their efficiency, productivity and competitiveness."

The benchmarking center helps customers understand how their datasets run on applications for scientific research, oil and gas exploration and finance modeling. Renowned computer scientists load the information on an operational cluster in a real-life environment, the performance is measured and customers learn how to optimize their environment.

Dell 9G Servers Deliver Price/Performance Leadership, Reduced Complexity

Dell's ninth-generation PowerEdge servers feature the most comprehensive enhancements ever to the widely installed product line and support the company's strategy to reduce complexity and drive more complete and cost-effective enterprise technologies across a variety of customer environments.

Customers now can order PowerEdge 1950, 2950, 2900 and 1955 blade servers with the Intel(R) Xeon(R) processor 5100 series that help lower power consumption by up to 25 percent(a) and can deliver up to a 152 percent performance increase(b) over the previous generation dual-socket Dell PowerEdge server.

Services Help Customers Simplify Deployment and Support

In addition to easy deployment, customers buying High performance Computing Clusters can also purchase HPCC Enterprise support, which includes highly trained Dell engineers specializing in HPCC environments. HPCC Enterprise Support also includes support on the software stack and technical account management escalation for critical incidents within the HPCC environment.

About the Maui High Performance Computing Center

The Maui High Performance Computing Center is an Air Force Research Laboratory Center managed by the University of Hawaii. MHPCC is an Allocated Distributed Center of the Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program, providing computational resources to the research and development, test and evaluation, and warfighter communities.

About the Texas Advanced Computing Center

The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) is a research center at the University of Texas at Austin. TACC provides advanced computing resources and services to enable computationally-intensive research and conducts research and development to enhance the capabilities of these resources. The center's mission is to enhance the research and education programs of the University of Texas at Austin and its partners through research, development, operation, and support of advanced computing technologies.

About Dell

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) listens to customers and delivers innovative technology and services they trust and value. Uniquely enabled by its direct business model, Dell sells more systems globally than any computer company, placing it No. 25 on the Fortune 500. Company revenue for the past four quarters was $56.7 billion. For more information, visit www.dell.com. To get Dell news direct, visit www.dell.com/RSS.

(a) Based on testing performed by Dell Labs in May 2006 using the SPECjbb2005 benchmark on a PE2950 with two dual core Intel Xeon 5160 (3.0Ghz Woodcrest) processors, 4GB 667Mhz and 533Mhz FBD memory, 2x SAS 73GB/15k rpm HDDs, Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to a PE2850 with two dual core Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz Paxville processors, 4GB 400Mhz DDR2 memory, 2x SCSI 36GB/15K rpm HD's, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS. Actual performance and power consumption will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

(b) Based on the SPECjbb2005 benchmark test performed by Dell Labs in December 2005 and April-May 2006 on a PE1950 with two dual core Intel Xeon 5160 (3.0Ghz Woodcrest) processors, 8GB 667Mhz FBD memory, 1x SATA 80GB/7.2K rpm HDD, and Windows Server 2003 Enterprise x64 Edition OS as compared to a PE2850 with two dual core Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz (Paxville) processors, 8GB 400Mhz DDR2 memory, 1x SCSI 36GB/15K rpm HDD, and Windows Server 2003 Standard Edition, SP1 OS. Actual performance will vary based on configuration, usage and manufacturing variability.

Source: Business Wire

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