Mission:
Government must increasingly use its world-class scientists, engineers, and facilities to help motivate and educate America's students and teachers in math and science.
Impact:
The National Education Supercomputer Program provides a unique instructional tool for science and mathematics students in elementary, junior high school, high school, and community colleges throughout the United States. Teachers learn how to bridge the ga
p between textbook concepts and actual applications by using high-performance computing tools similar to those used by scientists.
The National Education Supercomputer (the NES) is a CRAY Y-MP EL provided to
the National Education Supercomputer Program (NESP) by Cray Research, Inc. The machine, housed at and operated by the National Energy Research Supercomputer Center (NERSC) located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is used exclusively for educational purposes. The Cray Y-MP EL replaced a Cray X-MP in the spring of 1994.
Goals:
- Perform large-scale computer simulations and modeling to enhance classroom science and mathematics instruction
- Demonstrate the importance of supercomputers in scientific research
- Supply a reliable, progressive computing environment that supports efficient, wide-area network access ar little or no cost to schools
- Explore and develop projects that foster interdisciplinary education
- Encourage the sharing of curriculum and ideas among teachers, students, and scientists
- Strengthen the partnership between DOE laboratories and educational institutions
Funding:
The NESP is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
Currently, the National Education Supercomputer is a Cray Y-MP EL. This machine replaced a Cray X-MP on March 1, 1994. The Y-MP EL is more powerful and has many times the memory and disk drive storage of the old X-MP.
The NES is the only supercomputer in the world dedicated exclusively to educational purposes. You can see the NES in the front, right-middle of the machine room picture. A clickable floor plan of the NERSC machine room, detailing the capabilities
of each Cray Supercomputer, can be found on the NERSC Home page.
NEBBS serves many purposes including the running of simulations to the NES and the home of all the NESP software and discussions. NEBBS can be access through the Internet at nebbs.nersc.gov or through a modem using 1-800-447-6377
.
Projects in the NESP:
The NESP features five main projects for which anyone can obtain the front-end software to create simulations, submit these simulations to NEBBS, then view the results using Movie for the Macin
tosh or IBM compatibles (DOS).
The Distributed Processing cycle takes advantage of the power on your microcomputer and matches it with the power of the supercomputer. This "power on demand" also reduces the amount of time spent on the network and limits the network use to only uploadi
ng and downloading files. NEBBS handles all communication with the NES and moves the files to and from the NES.
Workshops in the NESP:
Among the educational workshops that the NESP facilitates on-site at LLNL are
NESP Staff and helpers
NEBBS and NES Usage Charts
Other California WWW Sites
For more information about the NESP or technical questions, contact:
lindow@nes.nersc.gov -- Brian Lindow
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