DOD taps SGI for high-performance computing

The Defense Department High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) recently selected SGI Federal Inc. to provide hardware, software and services needed to boost the processing power and shared memory necessary for analyzing mission-critical problems.

SGI's products offer DOD researchers a wide range of computational resources, including SGI Origin 3000 scalable supercomputers, an SGI Onyx 3000 series graphics supercomputer, SGI Origin 300 midrange technical servers, SGI Total Performance 9500 (TP9500) Redundant Array of Independent Disks storage, and the SGI CXFS shared file system.

Four DOD high-performance computing centers will deploy the SGI systems:

* Aeronautical Systems Center (ASC), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

* Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC), Vicksburg, Miss. The ERDC will work with the ASC to address the research and development computing needs of the DOD science and technology and test and evaluation communities.

* Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, Monterey, Calif. SGI's products will support the Navy's Coupled Ocean/Atmosphere Mesoscale Prediction System model, which can execute forecasts at resolutions of a few kilometers.

* Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Patuxent River, Md. The division will use the new systems for computational improvements, including support for the Joint Strike Fighter weapon system.

Cray Henry, director of the DOD HPCMP, said SGI's systems will provide increased performance at the two major shared resource centers and the two distributed centers, and "will help address the department's highest-priority needs in science and technology and test and evaluation."

The SGI Origin 3000 systems "are unique in their ability to handle up to 512 microprocessors and 2 terabytes of data in memory in a single operating image, allowing DOD scientists to run complex simulations of weather, oceanography or explosions in a straightforward manner," said Tony Celeste, national director of defense business, SGI Federal.

The General Services Administration's Federal Technology Service awarded SGI the one-year deal on behalf of the DOD HPCMP on Jan. 31. The contract includes options for 42 months of customer support, according to an SGI spokesman.

The spokesman added that this is SGI's single largest defense order in the company's 21-year history.