Dell Teams Up With LONI To Offer Supercomputing Grids

By Niladri Sekhar Nath

TMCnet Contributing Editor

 

Dell has joined forces with the Louisiana Optical Network Initiative (LONI) to come up with powerful supercomputing grids. The supercomputing grids will have six Dell (News - Alert) server clusters equipped with 30 teraflops of computing power. The company claims that the grids can perform 30 trillion operations per second.

 

The supercomputing grids are primarily an interconnected system, which can enhance computational resources for academic research. The grids are ideal for hurricane tracking and storm surge modeling with speed and precision.

 

LONI, a fiber optics network connecting supercomputers at Louisiana’s six key research universities, aims to enhance computation speeds and boost the research capability of Louisiana’s educational institutions.

 

According to a press release, each LONI member campus will host a 132-node supercomputing cluster outfitted with Dell PowerEdgeTM 1950 servers with five teraflops of storage.

 

"These advances position LONI and Louisiana to become a world leader in supercomputing and emerging cyber technologies," commented Charlie McMahon, LONI executive director.

 

"Louisiana is building a world-class supercomputing system that will serve as a boon to the state’s businesses and education institutions," said John Mullen, vice president of Dell’s Higher Education and Health Care businesses. "Using standards-based Dell technology, LONI can cost-effectively scale to meet future computing needs, making the most of the state’s investment."

 

LONI’s member institutions are Louisiana State University, Louisiana Tech University, LSU Health Sciences Center — New Orleans, LSU Health Sciences Center — Shreveport, Southern University and A&M College, Tulane University, University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the University of New Orleans.

 

 

For more information visit:  www.dell.com  www.loni.org