Acquisition of SGI Onyx 3400 Supercomputer

我们建议购买一台SGI Onyx 3400超级计算机，能够在模拟、计算和可视化方面具有最先进的性能，升级一个成熟的计算核心设施，并为西奈山医学院最近成立的高级成像计划(MSSM)提供基本的计算引擎。MSSM最近一项扩展成像和计算科学的倡议，以及成像技术中带宽和分辨率的不断发展，正在产生巨大的多维数据集(在该提案中约为20-4090 GB)，其分析、重建和可视化所需的计算速度和内存远远超过可用资源。在MSSM不存在用于可视化和模拟超过大约1 GB的大型多维数据集的机器电流。高级成像计划是一个分布式计划，它结合了所有级别的显微分析、MR显微镜以及在人类和动物模型中的几种成像模式，并促进了研究人员之间的思想交流和合作倡议，这对于确保MSSM科学研究的持续发展至关重要。除了主要用户群体外，还将向邻近机构(MyU、纽约州立大学石溪分校)的合作者提供超级计算/可视化设施，为高性能计算和可视化提供集中资源，并促进更广泛的纽约研究界之间的跨学科和机构间合作。拟议中的Onyx 3400超级计算机的主要用户描述的每个研究计划目前都受到计算限制或未满足的可视化要求的限制，这些要求超出了任何可用的计算资源的范围。将受益于拟议设备的项目代表了广泛的基础科学和临床相关研究，这些研究在很大程度上利用了MSSM发达的成像设施，但缺乏集中的计算和可视化设施。拟议的超级计算机的购置将对MSSM的研究产生重大影响，因为它将建立一个共同设施，对高分辨率成像数据进行密集的计算分析和显示。作为一个共享的计算设施，它将促进主要用户之间开发和交流新的定量成像和图像分析工具，并促进与具有共同计算和可视化要求的不同领域的调查人员进行多学科互动。

We propose to acquire an SGI Onyx 3400 supercomputer, capable of state-of-the-art performance in simulation, computation and visualization, to upgrade a well-established Computational Core facility, and to provide the basic computational engine of the recently formed Advanced Imaging Program at Mount Sinai School of Medicine (MSSM). A recent initiative at MSSM to expand the imaging and computational sciences, together with the ongoing evolution of bandwidth and resolution in imaging technology is generating enormous multi-dimensional datasets (on order 20-4090 GB in this proposal) whose analysis, reconstruction and visualization demands computational speed and memory far exceeding available resources. No machine current exists at MSSM for visualization and simulation of large multi- dimensional datasets in excess of approximately 1 GB. The Advanced Imaging Program is a distributed program that incorporates all levels of microscopic analysis, MR microscopy and several imaging modalities in humans and animal models, and promotes the exchange of ideas and collaborative initiatives amongst researchers that is essential to ensure the continued advancement of scientific research at MSSM. In addition to the major user group, the supercomputing/visualization facility will be available to collaborators at neighboring institutions (MYU, SUNY Stony Brook), providing a centralized resource for high-performance computational and visualization, and fostering interdisciplinary and inter- institutional collaborations amongst the wider New York research community. Each of the research programs described by the major users of the proposed Onyx 3400 supercomputer is current constrained either by computational limitations or by unmet visualization requirements that are beyond the scope of any available computational resources. The projects that will benefit from the proposed equipment represents a broad range of basic scientific and clinically related studies, which heavily utilize well-developed imaging facilities at MSSM, but are lacking a centralized computational and visualization facility. The acquisition of the proposed supercomputer will have a major impact on research at MSSM by establishing a common facility by computationally intensive analysis and display of high-resolution imaged data. As a shared computational facility, it will promote development and exchange of novel quantitative imaging and image analysis tools between the major users, and foster multi-disciplinary interactions with investigators from diverse areas with common computational and visualization requirements.