Sun, along with the National Science Foundation and Iowa State University, has facilitated the institution's second supercomputer known as Cystorm that boasts a peak performance of 28.16 trillion calculations per second. The 3,200 computer processor cores powering Cystorm provide five times the peak of the university's first supercomputer CyBlue, an IBM Blue Gene/L, that uses 2,048 processors to do 5.7 trillion calculations per second.

According to Cystorm Project Lead Srinivas Aluru the Sun supercomputer also scores high on a more realistic test of a supercomputer's actual performance: 15.44 trillion calculations per second compared to CyBlue's 4.7 trillion per second. That measure makes Cystorm 3.3 times more powerful than CyBlue.

The purpose of the new supercomputer is to help Iowa State researchers advance their work in materials science, power systems and systems biology. It is also earning Iowa State recognition as a Sun Microsystems Center of Excellence in Engineering Informatics and Systems Biology.

"Cystorm is going to be very good for data-intensive research projects," said Aluru, who also is a professor of Computer Engineering. "The capabilities of Cystorm will help Iowa State researchers do new, pioneering research in their fields."

Aluru said materials scientists will use the supercomputer to analyze data from the university's Local Electrode Atom Probe microscope, an instrument that can gather data and produce images at the atomic scale of billionths of a meter. Systems biologists will use the supercomputer to build gene networks that will help researchers understand how thousands of genes interact with each other. Power systems researchers will use the supercomputer to study the security, reliability and efficiency of the country's energy infrastructure. Additionally, computer engineers will use the supercomputer to build a software infrastructure that helps users make decisions by identifying relevant information sources.

"These research efforts will lead to significant advances in the penetration of high performance computing technology," says a summary of the Cystorm project. "The project will bring together multiple departments and research centers at Iowa State University and further enrich interdisciplinary culture and training opportunities."

The computer was purchased with a $719,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, $400,000 from Iowa State and a $200,000 equipment donation from Sun.

While Cystorm is much more powerful than CyBlue, which has been on the Iowa State campus since 2006, Aluru said Iowa State's first supercomputer will still be used by researchers across campus. "CyBlue will still be around," Aluru said. "Researchers will use both systems to solve problems. Both systems enhance the research capabilities of Iowa State."

More Information

Sun High Performance Computing

Sun HPC Community

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