MRI-R2: Acquisition of a GPU-accelerated High-Performance Computing Cluster

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案(Public Law 111-5)资助的。研究蛋白质和聚合物中分子相互作用的方式，或者恒星如何在非常密集的星团中动态相互作用，需要非常强大和非常快速的计算机。由于巨大的商业市场，某些类型的计算机处理器(称为图形处理单元(GPU))的能力一直在迅速扩展。它们现在比作为大多数计算机核心的传统中央处理器(CPU)更快、更便宜。德雷克塞尔大学的斯蒂芬·麦克米兰博士和他的同事们提议使用这些快速、高效和负担得起的CPU来加快为大量恒星或分子的行为建模所需的非常复杂和漫长的计算。NSF的主要研究仪器项目通过其天文科学部为麦克米兰博士的工作提供资金。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).Studying the way molecules interact in proteins and polymers, or how stars interact dynamically in very dense clusters, requires very powerful and very fast computers. The capabilities of certain kinds of computer processors, called Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) have been expanding rapidly due to a large commercial market. They are now faster, and cheaper, than conventional Central Processing Units (CPUs) at the heart of most computers. Dr. Stephen McMillan and his colleagues at Drexel University are proposing to use these fast, efficient, and affordable CPUs to speed up the very complicated and lengthy computations needed in to model the behavior of large collections of stars or molecules. NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program is funding Dr. McMillan's work through its Division of Astronomical Sciences.