NCSA, SDSC Add Compute Systems to TeraGrid

Published 03/30/2006

As of April 1, users requesting high-performance computing resources from the National Science Foundation have seamless access to all computational resources at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) within the TeraGrid environment. TeraGrid now provides the nation's scientists and engineers with access to NCSA's Tungsten, Radium and Copper systems (in addition to the previously available Mercury and Cobalt) and SDSC's DataStar and Blue Gene systems. Combined with systems in Texas, Indiana, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh, these additions bring the TeraGrid's total computational performance to a peak of 102 trillion calculations per second.

One benefit of the move is that TeraGrid users with "roaming" allocations will now have access to all NSF-supported systems at NCSA and SDSC, as well as the TeraGrid systems at other sites around the country. Users can use a roaming allocation to run on the systems at opportune times, explore their code's performance on new architectures, or expand their science via grid workflows.

Roaming allocations created on or after April 1 will include access to all TeraGrid systems. Users with roaming allocations established prior to April 1 must request access to the new systems via the TeraGrid account request form.

SDSC and NCSA are two of eight centers across the nation that together provide the TeraGrid's computational, storage, software, and instrument and visualization resources, along with user support and related services. The other partner sites, also called Resource Providers (RPs), are: The University of Chicago/Argonne National Laboratory; Indiana University; Oak Ridge National Laboratory; Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center; Purdue University and the Texas Advanced Computing Center.