CENTER FOR ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY RECEIVES SUPERCOMPUTER FROM IBM New York University today announced that the IBM Corporation is donating an SP2 supercomputer to its Center for Advanced Technology (CAT). The donation was made in recognition of the next-generation research being conducted by the CAT. The SP2 machine will provide large computational and server power to support the CAT’s ongoing research in next-generation Internet activities.
The formal hand-over of the computer will take place at 6:00 pm on June 15th, 1999 at the CAT’s “Ultraviolet” exhibition, its annual showcase of new multi-media technologies developed at NYU and held in its offices at 721 Broadway.
The new computer, when linked to other gear provided by IBM and the University’s computing resources, will enable researchers at the CAT to do work in more computationally demanding areas, including:
Expanding NYU-developed research in responsive animation to create next generation interactive entertainment networks
Forming more intuitive interfaces to the world wide web, such as the presentation of search engine results as a zoomable datascape
Using parallel visualization for computationally complex modeling problems, such as weather simulation, surgical planning, and navigation of the human genome.
Prof. Kenneth Perlin, director of the CAT and NYU Media Research Lab, said, “Uses for the net are expanding at an awesome pace. This donation will help us to discover new paradigms for visualizing and interacting with information which can transform the way people work and play.”
Last December, the NYU CAT received a Shared University Research Grant from IBM. The grant was provided to promote research in creating applications and network services that will be made possible only by Internet2 technology, in particular exploring various aspects of the use of interactive Internet media both for traditional desktops and “pervasive computing” clients using hand-held devices.
As part of the grant, the CAT was given a state-of-the-art parallel computer from IBM, the RS/6000 SP2. Along with the SP2 supercomputer, the CAT was also given an IBM RS/6000 f50 workstation for direct interface with the SP2 and two IBM IntelliStation M Pros, IBM’s top-of-the-line Windows NT workstations. The SP2 will be linked to the University’s existing SP system to create a powerful computational resource at NYU. The value of IBM’s donation is some $900,000.
The SP system is an open parallel computer at the high end of the RS/6000 family based on the proven IBM AIX and RISC technologies. The SP system excels at some of the largest and most complex technical and commercial applications, from financial modeling to modeling of the universe. It has the flexibility to function as an application server or data server, or it can run combinations of interactive, batch, serial and parallel jobs concurrently.
NYU’s Center for Advanced Technology is a State-funded economic development enterprise. The CAT acts as a bridge between the new media industry and the University, using the talents, research and expertise of NYU’s faculty and students to assist businesses in a variety of ways.
New York University is one of the largest private universities in the U.S. Based in New York City’s historic Greenwich Village, NYU has 13 colleges and schools that conduct cutting-edge research and provide education in the arts and sciences, law, medicine, dentistry, business, nursing, education, the cinematic and performing arts, social work, and public service and administration, among other areas.