http://www.sgi.com/Headlines/1995/Mar/delaware.html (Einblicke ins Internet, 10/1995)
The university's POWER CHALLENGE system will have a peak performance rating of 2.4 billion floating point operations per second (GFLOPS) and will offer 2 gigabytes of memory. The University of Delaware purchased the POWER CHALLENGE - which incorporates eight 64-bit MIPS(r) R8000(tm) RISC processors - based on the recommendation of its university-wide Large-Scale Computing Users Committee.
"Our high-end research community had a collective need for a powerful new-generation supercomputing environment; at the same time, however, cost-effectiveness was a major consideration," said Daniel J. Grim, chair of the Large-Scale Computing Users Committee and executive director of the university's Network and Systems Services. "The POWER CHALLENGE system met our exacting price/performance requirements. And its excellent performance, in both multiprocessing and parallel applications, and ease of programming also played a major role in the selection process."
The University of Delaware will use the POWER CHALLENGE supercomputing system to advance research and teaching in a variety of scientific and engineering disciplines. The supercomputer will be employed in such areas as molecular modeling, ocean simulations, computational fluid dynamics, air pollution modeling, computational mechanics, atomic and molecular physics theory, theoretical astrophysics/astronomy and computer algebra research. The system also will be used for instructional purposes, including the teaching of courses in high-performance and parallel computing.
"The POWER CHALLENGE system's industry-leading shared-memory multiprocessing technology will allow University of Delaware researchers to solve highly complex scientific and engineering problems in a more efficiently and intuitively," said Ron Bernal, vice president and general manager of Silicon Graphics' Supercomputing Systems Division. "And, in addition to realizing high-level research objectives, the university will expose students to the latest innovations in high-performance computing and parallel processing."
The University of Delaware is one of the oldest American institutions of higher education. A private university with public support, UD is a Land-Grant, Sea-Grant and Space-Grant institution. In 1994, the university was honored as a national model for its leadership in computing with the presentation of the CAUSE Award for Excellence in Campus Networking, which recognizes exemplary campuswide network planning, management and accessibility as well as effective use of the campuswide network to enhance teaching, learning, research, administration and community service.
Silicon Graphics, Inc. is the leading manufacturer of high-performance visual computing systems. The company delivers interactive three-dimensional graphics, digital media and multiprocessing supercomputing technologies to technical, scientific and creative professionals. Its subsidiary, MIPS Technologies, Inc., designs and licenses the industry's leading RISC processor technology for the computer systems and embedded control markets. Silicon Graphics has offices worldwide and headquarters in Mountain View, California.
Silicon Graphics is a registered trademark, and POWER CHALLENGE is a trademark of Silicon Graphics, Inc. MIPS is a registered trademark, and R8000 is a trademark, of MIPS Technologies, Inc.
