UCSD and GA Reach Agreement on High-Performance Computing Initiative

Published 06/03/1996

Media contacts:
Warren R. Froelich, UCSD, 619-534-8564, wfroelich@ucsd.edu
Ann Redelfs, SDSC, 619-534-5032, redelfs@sdsc.edu

San Diego, California. The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and General Atomics (GA) have reached agreement to submit a single, unified proposal to create the necessary computational infrastructure to enable new modes of scientific investigation into the 21st Century. This announcement brings to resolution recent differences over the future of the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), a national center for computational science and engineering funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). SDSC is currently managed by GA through a cooperative agreement with NSF and in cooperation with UCSD.

The unified proposal will be submitted by September 3, 1996 to NSF's program, Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI), which calls for the creation of partnerships composed of nationally recognized computational centers, universities, national laboratories, and industrial partners, centered on "leading-edge sites." The successor to SDSC will form the nucleus of UCSD's leading-edge site in the proposal.

Today's agreement calls for UCSD to lead the proposal effort. UCSD announced in March that Sid Karin, who founded SDSC in 1985 and directed the center for 11 years, would head the new enterprise. Karin is an adjunct professor of computer science and engineering at UCSD and director of the newly formed Office of Advanced Scientific Computing at UCSD.

"UCSD's proposal will serve as a model for advancing the nation's computational infrastructure in support of scientific research and economic progress," says Karin. "This infrastructure will both balance and apply the power of vastly different computational resources linked by long-distance networks to important scientific and societal problems. It will also make it possible to move huge amounts of data between sites for rapid analysis to gain greater scientific insight."

Dennis Duke, SDSC's director since April 16 and a professor of physics at Florida State University, said, "The knowledge and expertise gained over the past 11 years, created through the cooperative management of SDSC by GA and UCSD, will serve as the foundation to develop the computational infrastructure of the future. We look forward to a productive relationship with all of the partners who will contribute their strengths to the vision being outlined in the proposal." Since his arrival, Duke has been SDSC's and GA's primary representative in working with UCSD to determine the future course for SDSC.

The new proposal will include partnerships with other UC campuses, several national laboratories, and leading academic and industrial centers across the nation. This powerful infrastructure will provide unprecedented local, state, and national benefits for research, education, and industry.

The new enterprise will support access to production and experimental supercomputers and appropriate technologies such as visualization and mass storage, will support applications and technology development for high-end systems, and will promote education and training in the use of computational technology.

SDSC, a national laboratory for computational science and engineering, is sponsored by NSF, other agencies, the State and University of California, and private organizations; is affiliated with the University of California, San Diego; and is administered by General Atomics. For more information, see http://www.sdsc.edu or contact Ann Redelfs, SDSC, redelfs@sdsc.edu, 619-534-5032.