Knoxville (TN) – The University of Tennessee (UT) has received a $65 million grant from the National Science Foundation Supercomputing for a next-generation computing system and will spend the money on a Cray system that is scheduled to go into operation next year.

Cray has confirmed delivery of XT4 supercomputer using quad-core AMD Opteron processors for this year and will upgrade the system to “near-petaflops compute capability” in 2009. Details about the system have not been announced, however, the university said that the hardware will cost about $30 million, while the cost to operate the computer over the next five years is estimated at about $35 million.

When deployed, the XT$ is expected to run simulations of supernova formation, galaxy evolution, and black hole mergers; new models to help scientists understand extreme weather such as hurricanes and tornadoes as well as long-term climate change and the effects of pollution; high-resolution simulations of the earth's interior and enhance our understanding of the planet's evolution and materials scientists will be better able to design materials with useful properties, UT said.

The supercomputer will be installed at the University of Tennessee-Oak Ridge National Laboratory Joint Institute for Computational Sciences.

AMD based...

Apr 07, 2008 13:57     

Just like ATI chips to nVidia, ATI is just better engineered. AMD to Intel is the same, AMD is better engineered. Raw speed is nice, but it's not the end all, be all to every computing routine. Cray knows, why don't the rest of you guys know?
Narg report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -14

@Narg

Apr 07, 2008 14:38     

It has nothing to do with better engineering. It has to do with how well it suits the purpose. The reason why AMD CPUs are commonly used in supercomputers like this one is because they use Hypertransport. This more easily enables machines that rely on massive parallelism to utilize commodity parts.
RN report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +10

$

Apr 07, 2008 16:29     

I'd figure price would factor somewhere in the decision to use AMD over Intel... But what do I know, I've never actually speced out a CRAY supercomputer.
P report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

Here's how

Apr 07, 2008 18:34     

http://www.cray.com/
Rockman report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

1. for 30million dollars: amd fan or not, your all ...

Apr 08, 2008 03:25     

1. for 30million dollars: amd fan or not, your all retarded. 2. one 900 athlon, and you will never look at amd again. 3. I am still here running a...?
anon report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2

@ P | 24.227.196.141

Apr 08, 2008 04:14     

that's exactly what Narg is saying...AMD's has a better architecture, better well suited for HPC stuff than Intel's 70s-tech FSB
Kin report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

I believe...

Apr 08, 2008 06:50     

I think that the choice of AMD says nothing other than that the AMD parts are better suited for what CRAY is trying to achieve. Different chips are better at different things. Why do you all think that benchmarking is done using so many different benchmarks? Cost could be a factor too of course. Intel is starting to bring out parts with their own form of hypertransport and integrated memory controllers , but they are still pricey. I prefer image quality over raw speed. Therefore I usually go for ATI parts. But I'll go to NVidia if they can start offering superior image quality along with better performance. I have a core 2 duo inside. At some stage I might decide a AMD CPU is what I need. But I always choose the one I believe suits me best. So everybody. Read your reviews - buy the CPU you need for what you want to do. And fanboys... nepa. Angels won't lose their wings if somebody buys a computer part you do not believe in.

Sq7 report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +4