@NMSU
NMSU now a gateway site to world's fastest public supercomputer
As one of the state's "gateways" to New Mexico's supercomputer, the fastest publicly available supercomputer in the world, New Mexico State University participated in "Connect New Mexico," a statewide event in January in which Gov. Bill Richardson unveiled the interconnected system from Santa Fe.
In January's interactive teleconference, eight "gateway" sites around the state were simultaneously networked through the supercomputer, called "Encanto," which is housed at Intel in Rio Rancho. From the capitol in Santa Fe, Richardson addressed audiences at the other seven gateway sites. By the end of March, another 24 sites will also be connected to the network. The 33 gateway sites bring the state expanded options for education, research and for high-tech economic development from Hobbs to Farmington and everywhere in between.
"This is truly historic in terms of our high-tech future," said Gov. Richardson, who will unveil the supercomputer gateway system as part of the demonstration event. "We're bringing the highest level of supercomputing to every corner of the state, and that will give our people remarkable opportunities to compete in the economies of the future."
The event demonstrated the supercomputer's teleconferencing and full 3-D stereo visualization systems. Cabinet members, legislators, business leaders, presidents of colleges and universities and others were in Santa Fe and at the gateway sites for the event.
NMSU is already Encanto's largest user among the state's colleges and universities, said Thomas Bowles, science advisor to Gov. Bill Richardson. Several NMSU faculty have used the supercomputer in their research or plan to do so in the future: Anatoly Klypin in astronomy, Michael Engelhardt and Boris Kiefer in physics, Kwong Ng in electrical and computer engineering and Derek Fisher in the Creative Media Institute.
"The supercomputer is a phenomenal high-tech tool," said NMSU President Barbara Couture. "Being able to provide supercomputing capabilities through a network of universities and businesses enhances research, education and economic development capabilities across the state."
Encanto can be used for research, educational activities, training and business modeling in the areas of energy, environment, digital film, aerospace and biotechnology, among others.
The supercomputer is powered by Intel Xeon processor cores, has the same amount of memory found in 28,000 office computers and can perform 172 trillion calculations per second. It is run by the New Mexico Computing Applications Center, whose founding institutions are the University of New Mexico, New Mexico State University, New Mexico Tech and Sandia and Los Alamos National Laboratories, and was made possible through a $14 million appropriation from the 2007 State Legislature.
January's event was a demonstration of the 3-D visualization and interactive teleconferencing capabilities that are now possible among the state's networked sites. NMSU's gateway laboratory, which will be available for use later in March or April, offers users two 65-inch high-definition 3-D rear projection DLP monitors, three high-definition webcams, a computer workstation to run the screens, 30 pairs of 3-D glasses, nine wireless microphones and a sound system. Three new PCs will soon be added to the lab.
Researchers and other supercomputer users who are doing work requiring 3-D visualizations, such as modeling or work for animated films, can schedule time on the 3-D equipment to view their work.
In addition to NMSU and the state capitol, the following sites joined in the January event: the University of New Mexico, Eastern New Mexico University, Western New Mexico University, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Santa Fe Community College and San Juan College.
In the coming months, these additional colleges and universities will join the gateway network: University of New Mexico campuses in Taos, Los Alamos, Valencia, and Gallup; Central New Mexico Community College; New Mexico State University in Roswell, Carlsbad, Alamogordo, Dona Ana and Grants; New Mexico Highlands University in Las Vegas and Rio Rancho; Eastern New Mexico University in Roswell and Ruidoso; New Mexico Junior College; New Mexico Military Institute; College of Santa Fe; Clovis Community College; Mesalands Community College; Luna Community College; Northern New Mexico College; Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute; Institute of American Indian Arts; Diné College; and Navajo Technical College.
Access to Encanto and the gateway laboratory at NMSU is available to faculty, staff, students and members of the community who have a legitimate need for their use. Anyone who is interested in using the supercomputer or the gateway laboratory should contact Shaun Cooper, NMSU vice president and chief information officer, at scooper@nmsu.edu.
Written by Christina Pheley.