Cornell Theory Center First To Receive IBM'S Newest High Performance POWERparallel System

Cornell Provides SP2 Research Library on Internet

NEW YORK, NY, April 5, 1994 IBM today announced that the Cornell Theory Center at Cornell University will be the first customer to receive IBM's newest scalable, RISC-based parallel processing system. The Cornell Theory Center, a long-standing partner with IBM in high performance computing, was IBM's first POWERparallel customer after the system's February 1993 introduction.

The IBM Scalable POWERparallel Systems SP2* [ http://ibm/ibm/pps/sp2/sp2intro.html ], announced today by IBM, provides up to twice the node performance of its predecessor, eight times greater memory and four times greater bandwidth. The Theory Center is expected to install a 512-node SP2 later in 1994.

"Just as we demonstrated the versatility, speed and power of the SP1 in our research this past year, we intend to be the proving ground for IBM's newest UNIX parallel processor," said Malvin H. Kalos [ http://ibm.tc.cornell.edu/people/gif/tc/mal.gif ], director of the Cornell Theory Center [ http://www.tc.cornell.edu/ ]. "Our goal is to have the SP2 become a key strategic platform for U.S. business, as well as for our traditional research communities."

IBM also announced today the creation of an innovative information resource at the Cornell Theory Center. Information about the POWERparallel System SP2, and the research projects for which it is used, is now available on World Wide Web servers at the Cornell Theory Center. The World Wide Web [ http://info.cern.ch/hypertext/WWW/LineMode/Defaults/default.html ] is accessible to Internet users via browsers such as the National Center for Supercomputing Applications' [ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/General/NCSAHome.html ] Mosaic [ http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosaicHome.html ] --a program for retrieving Internet information. The Internet is a web of 25,000 corporate, educational and research computer networks that span the globe.

Theory Center Research/p> TThe Cornell Theory Center [ http://www.tc.cornell.edu/ ], a national center for high performance computing and communications located at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, is funded by the National Science Foundation, New York State, the National Institutes of Health, the Advanced Research Projects Agency and corporate partners.

The Center uses its current 64-processor POWERparallel SP1 for a broad range of scientific and engineering applications. Specific applications currently supported by the Center include modeling sedimentary basins to pinpoint oil; interactively accessing large data sets; exploring particle methods used in aerospace engineering; dissolution of natural gas; turbulent combustion; and orthopedic biomechanics [ http://ibm.tc.cornell.edu/ibm/cornell/viz/medical/femur/femur.html ].

The Cornell Theory Center works with partners around the country to help solve national and Grand Challenge problems, such as more effective health care through improved drug design and environmental modeling. /p>

Unique SP2 Information Resource

IBM's POWER Parallel Systems business unit [ http://ibm.tc.cornell.edu/ibm/pps/ibmpps.html ] produces world-class scalable, parallel information systems for commercial and scientific/technical customers.

The IBM Scalable POWERparallel Systems SP1* and SP2* feature design and performance leadership, offer exceptional reliability and versatility, and deliver high performance computing at workstation prices. /p>

Headquartered in Somers, N.Y., IBM's POWER Parallel Systems business unit also draws on resources from the IBM Large Scale Computing Division, IBM RISC System/6000 Division and IBM Research.

* Indicates trademark or registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation. Other product names may be trademarks of their respective companies.