Cray Replaces IBM as Provider of Powerful Blue Waters Supercomputer

IBM (News - Alert) tried to provide a supercomputer to the University of Illinois but threw in the towel. Now, Cray is giving it a whirl. The University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) recently reached an agreement with Cray for the supercomputer to be used by the Blue Waters project.

The deal between the organizations is valued at more than $188 million. In the near future, Cray will install hardware in the University of Illinois’ National Petascale Computing Facility.  It should be deployed by the end of next year.

IBM dropped the project some three months ago because of costs and technical issues, according to a report from The Associated Press.

Once operational, the Cray supercomputer will be used for research in science and engineering. It will be used for applications that require intensive computing, memory use and data use, the company said. Examples are in nanotechnology, studying the evolution of the universe, predicting damage from earthquakes, tornadoes, viruses, and predicting climate change, the company said.

Blue Waters will provide an average of more than one petaflops in performance “on a set of benchmark codes that represent those applications and domains,” the company added.

The computer will include Cray XK6 blades with NVIDIA (News - Alert) Tesla GPUs (graphics processing units), based on NVIDIA Kepler architecture. The Blue Waters project will feature a hybrid supercomputer system with more than 235 Cray XE6 cabinets and more than 30 cabinets of a future version of the recently announced Cray XK6 supercomputer, according to a NVIDIA press statement.

NVIDIA says the supercomputer will be one of the most powerful ones in the world. Steve Scott, chief technology officer of Tesla at NVIDIA, said in comments carried by TMCnet that “the performance and wide access of Blue Waters will enable the scientific community to accelerate the race for better science.”

“This configuration will be the most balanced, powerful, and useable system available when it comes online,” NCSA Director Thom Dunning added in a press release. “By incorporating a future version of the XK6 system, Blue Waters will also provide a bridge to the future of scientific computing.”

“The project is an incredible undertaking, requiring commitment and dedication not only from NSF [National Science Foundation], NCSA, the University of Illinois, and the science teams, but also from our computing systems partner – Cray. This strong partnership further establishes our place at the forefront of high-performance computing,” added University of Illinois President Michael Hogan.

And Phyllis Wise, chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, predicts the supercomputer “will help scientists and engineers solve their most challenging problems.” Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray, said the supercomputer will provide “sustained petascale performance across a broad range of breakthrough science and engineering applications.”

The Blue Waters project started in 2008. More than 25 teams of scientists will be using the supercomputer once it’s operational.

Cray offers supercomputers to government offices, industry and academic institutions. The NCSA – located at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – assists thousands of scientists and engineers. It started in 1986.

Most of the project’s funding will come from the NSF, which will provide over $200 million. The rest of the money – $100 million – will come from the university and the state of Illinois, according to The AP.

“This is a transformational contract for the company,” Ungaro was quoted by The AP. “It’s a very big deal for us. It’s a huge contract based on the size of the company and we couldn’t be more excited about it.”