The University of South Dakota will be upgrading its supercomputer this coming year. The 10-year old Legacy Supercomputer will be replaced by a machine eight times more powerful.
USD Assistant Vice President of Technology Cheryl Tiahrt says the upgrade is great news for researchers…..
The planned Lawrence Supercomputer will be able to perform calculations for advanced physics research. USD’s current computer would have required more than half of its power to process data from the Sanford Underground Research Facility.
A boost in processing speed will aid in the search for dark matter and neutrinos. Tiahrt says a powerful computer also means more opportunities for students….
The new computer will run at 64 Tera FLOPS, or 64 Trillion Floating Operations per second. An average smart phone runs at just 0.1 to 0.2 Tera FLOPS.
Tiahrt says you’d be surprised by the size though…
Tiahrt says the processors that make up the supercomputer, or the cluster, only take up an area about the size of a refrigerator. The Lawrence Supercomputer will be funded by a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation and a $200,000 grant from the South Dakota Board of Regents.
