Florida State Gets SupercomputerTALLAHASSEE, Fla.
An $8 million supercomputer capable of making calculations in a fraction of a second that would take a person two million years to do was showcased last month by new owner Florida State University.
Joined by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and other academic dignitaries, Florida State’s president, Dr. Sandy D’Alemberte, says the IBM RS/6000 SP computer would help track hurricanes, improve air traffic control and DNA analysis and help business professors create investment models.
“This system puts FSU at the forefront of high-performance
computing,” says D’Alemberte. “It gives us the largest university-owned computer site in the world.”
Florida State professor T.N. Krishnamurti, a tropical meteorologist renowned for his hurricane forecasting, has been guaranteed full use of the supercomputer during major hurricanes.
Bush, State University System Chancellor Dr. Adam Herbert and Regent Steve Uhlfelder were among those in the audience who donned three-dimensional glasses to watch part of a presentation on computer tracking of hurricanes.
The computer, capable of creating intelligent robots, performs 2.5 trillion calculations per second and is rated 8,000 times more powerful than the average desktop personal computer.
With 413 terabytes of storage, the system will have enough disk and tape space to store more than five times the number of cataloged books in the Library of Congress. A terabyte is a unit of
storage one million times greater than a megabyte.
Bush, who is anxious to use technology to streamline
bureaucracy, says the new Florida State computer would have
an immediate impact.
“This supercomputer will place FSU well above any other university in the world when it comes to providing its students and faculty the latest, most effective and powerful means of scientific and computer research,” Bush says. “The people of Florida and the
entire nation will benefit.”
© Copyright 2005 by DiverseEducation.com
