MRA: High Performance Computing, Information Serving, and Data Visualization on Clusters of Shared Memory Multiprocessors

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9523480 Woodward A collaboration with the NSF Metacenter to develop effective uses of the emerging supercomputer architecture consisting of a cluster of shared memory multiprocessors (SMP's) is proposed. Uses which will be addressed include not only high performance computing, but also providing high performance data and multimedia services over the National Information Infrastructure and scientific visualization of very large data sets. A strong team of researchers with considerable experience with the clustered SMP and closely related computer architectures has been assembled under the auspices of a new Laboratory for Computational Science and Engineering (LCS&E) at the University of Minnesota. Exploiting generous long-term loans of equipment as well as existing infrastructure, this team will work closely with the computer industry on system integration and software development and with the Metacenter on application development. Because of a shared interest in this new Silicon Graphics architecture; this MRA will collaborate especially closely with NCSA. However, the work of this Metacenter Regional Alliance is ultimately intended to be portable to other vendors' implementations of the clustered SMP architecture, and therefore should be applicable to the IBM SP-3 (Cornell), the Cray J90 (Pittsburgh), as well as the Convex Exemplar (NCSA). This MRA team developed the Wgl resolution Power Wall display system and demonstrated it at Supercomputing '94. The LCS&E team will work with NCSA and the Electronic Visualization Laboratory through its recently funded MRA, to help bring this technology into use at those sites and, particularly, at the I-WAY (Information Wide Area Year) demonstration at Supercomputing '95. Because of the Minnesota team's extensive work in building very high performance disk I/O subsystems for workstations, a useful relationship with the Parallel I/O Initiative at Caltech, another recent MRA, is also anticipated. Finally, the LCS&E team will work together with local inner city high schools and with the TIES organization representing a consortium of 45 Minnestoa school districts to provide K-12 outreach throughout the state of Minnesota.