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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—Researchers across Minnesota will have access to the most powerful SGI servers featuring the new Intel® Itanium 2 processor with the University of Minnesota Supercomputing Institute’s purchase of a 24-processor SGI Altix 3000 system. The newly installed system, featuring 48GB of memory, runs on the Linux operating system and uses the just-launched, much-anticipated Intel Itanium 2 processor. Research projects on the new system are expected to span the full spectrum of high-performance computing research needs, from numerical modeling of geophysical processes and genetic epidemiology of cardiovascular disease to quantum models for biological systems and methods for computational electromagnetics. Multidisciplinary and faculty driven, the institute is available to researchers at accredited colleges across the state of Minnesota, many of whom have collaborators at institutions worldwide. “Shared-memory architecture is widely acknowledged as ideal for large-scale scientific computing tasks because of the remarkable ease with which all processors in this environment can tackle the same challenging problem simultaneously. For the institute’s supercomputing expansion, this type of architecture is crucial, and Altix 3000 is a perfect fit. It undoubtedly will lead to significant improvements in our already high productivity,” said Supercomputing Institute Director and Professor of Chemistry Donald Truhlar. “The university has a long history of working with SGI and its products, because, like others, we recognize the value and efficiency of SGI tools for discovery research. The company has a large corporate presence in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and its commitment to the region has led to productive university-industry relations,” he added. The new system cements a relationship that began with installation of an SGI® Origin® server infrastructure that has been upgraded over the last five years. “SGI set a new standard for high-performance, scalable, open-source solutions with the successful introduction of Altix systems last January. Now the company takes technical computing to a new level by incorporating the just-launched Itanium 2 processor into its industry-leading, global shared-memory architecture,” said Dave Parry, senior vice president and general manager, Server and Platform Group, SGI. “It’s gratifying that longtime customers such as the Supercomputing Institute have immediately recognized and embraced the Altix system’s innovative capabilities.” Founded in 1984, the Supercomputing Institute is a linchpin program in the university’s broad-based digital technology effort. Its mission includes all aspects of high-performance computing and scientific modeling and simulation, as well as high-performance network communications, informatics and data mining.