Campus lands world's fastest supercomputer

By 2011, the University will be home to the fastest supercomputer in the world.

The supercomputer, named Blue Waters, will be built at the University's National Center for Supercomputing Applications with $208 million in funding from the National Science Foundation and will be different from any other supercomputer. Its powerful magnitude will have the ability to perform one quadrillion, or 1,000 trillion calculations a second, said Trish Barker, the center's spokesperson. In the past, supercomputers have only been able to perform multiple trillions of calculations a second.

The term used to measure the speed of supercomputers is the teraFLOP, or a supercomputer's ability to perform one trillion calculations per second, she said. The world's eighth fastest computer, located at the center, is capable of performing 89 teraFLOPs. Blue Waters will be able to perform one petaFLOP, or one quadrillion calculations a second.

"We're hoping to achieve a petascale system," Dana Cruikshank, public affairs specialist for the National Science Foundation. "There's an entirely new level of research now that we have tools fast enough to answer certain questions."

The foundation believes it is a top priority for the U.S. to maintain its leadership position in supercomputing assets, Cruikshank said. With Blue Waters completed, experts will be able to study figure systems and apply model simulations to real-world situations.

"It'll be similar in range of what's being done on computers today," said Barker. "Astronomy, chemistry, physics, engineering projects, weather modeling."

Building Blue Waters has not yet begun and nothing will be official until the end of September because of continuing negotiations between the center and the National Science Foundation, said Barker. One thing for certain is that Blue Waters will definitely be built and housed on campus upon completion.

"The U of I has a long history of success and leadership and high performance in the super computing realm," Barker said.

The center has been a part of the University for more than 20 years, with a main objective to open its doors to scientists and engineers across the nation. The center employs approximately 300 people and as a result, a large number of people, including employees of IBM, will collaborate to build the computer.

Once Blue Waters is built, it will be used as a national resource, giving anyone who submits an approved proposal a certain amount of time with the computer to further develop research. Access to Blue Waters is not limited to industrial users, corporations and potential international collaborators, Barker said.

Having Blue Waters built by some of the center's employees, as well as employees of IBM, will enhance the University's reputation and attract more students, faculty and businesses, she said.

Blue Waters will also be a channel for discoveries in hyper performance computing in academics that will benefit educational institutions across the country, Cruikshank said.

"This is definitely a big deal," Barker said. "(Blue Waters) will be a much larger computer than any other that is currently available anywhere in the world."