The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) and Cray Research, Inc. (NYSE: CYR) today announced an agreement under which OSC will acquire a 32-processor, "entry-level" version of the CRAY T3D massively parallel processing (MPP) system. The new CRAY system will fit well into OSC's existing Y-MP8/864 and Y-MP-EL/332 computing environment. The agreement calls for OSC and Cray Research to use the new systems to collaborate on advanced research projects including medical imaging. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Under the agreement, a 32-processor, air-cooled CRAY T3D system is scheduled to be installed at the OSC facility in Columbus in second-quarter 1994. The system will be closely coupled with a CRAY Y-MP2E parallel vector supercomputer system slated for installation at the same time, said OSC director Dr. Charles F. Bender. "This agreement will create a heterogeneous computing environment that combines the strengths of traditional parallel vector supercomputing with the new capabilities of MPP."
According to Dr. Bender, the 32-processor system is the smallest version of the CRAY T3D product line, which is available in sizes up to 2048 processors. "This entry-level version will enable us to test the applicability of massively parallel processing to the important research projects of Ohio industry and higher education." he said.
As an example, the primary goal of the medical imaging research project is to develop faster, more accurate methods for transferring and analyzing images gained from MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) and other digital medical imaging technologies. "We want to achieve real-time medical imaging, which could have very significant impact on diagnosis, surgery planning, and medical education," said Dr. Bender.
The research collaboration calls for OSC to establish a multi-disciplinary team consisting of existing staff with expertise in systems programming, training, computational chemistry, computational fluid flow, and finite element analysis. Cray Research would provide training as well as staff to collaborate on the project, which has a three-year duration.
"Over the years, OSC and CRI have had many successful joint research projects and we are pleased that OSC, which is already a Cray customer, has chosen to continue its relationship with Cray Research and our heterogeneous CRAY T3D system on this innovative research project," said Cray chairman and CEO John F. Carlson. "We will fully support the goals of this collaboration."
OSC is a state-funded shared resource of high performance computing available to scientists and engineers, both academic and commercial. Since 1987, OSC has been committed to providing the latest computational tools and technologies to industry and higher education.
Cray Research creates the most powerful, highest-quality computational tools for solving the world's most challenging scientific and industrial problems.
