GOVERNMENT

Having opened for business in September 2004, the New Zealand Supercomputing Centre (NZSC), managed by Gen-i, is now hosting its first round of clients from New Zealand and around the world. With computing power roughly 9,000 times more powerful than the average PC, the NZSC is largest commercially available supercomputing cluster in the Southern Hemisphere. The NZSC cluster is made up of 1,008 Intel 2.8 Gigahertz Xeon processors on 504 IBM dual Blade servers and has a processing capability of roughly more than 2.8 trillion calculations per second (A human can make this many calculations on a hand-held calculator but it would require 2.3 million years of 24 hour-a-day effort, instead of one second). The following projects are currently underway at the NZSC facilities in Wellington: • Urban Voyage and Warwick Yacht Design are using the processors to render advanced design simulations for a 100 foot Superyacht • A large manufacturer in the United States is using the processors for advanced-generation computer chip product development and manufacturing • A Canadian biotech customer is using the facility for a variety of gene sequencing algorithms • New Zealand’s Bioinformatics Institute, jointly funded by the University of Auckland and AgResearch, is currently testing the scalability of a new program that tracks the evolutionary origins and histories of everything from HIV to whales to languages • New Zealand’s Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences (GNS) plan to optimise their GLOBE Claritas seismic data processing software to take full advantage of the processing speed of the NZSC. The sheer power of the NZSC combined with the ability to add user defined or third party modules into GLOBE Claritas, will allow GNS to pursue a number of exciting new business models “Gen-i is proud to be host to such ground breaking research,” said Gen-i Group General Manager, Chris Quin. “The projects are as fascinating as the power of the cluster itself. It’s good for Gen-i but on a larger scale, it helps put New Zealand on the map for scientific and industry computer-based research.” Partnering in Research The NZSC has established key relationships with a number of institutions including Auckland University, GNS and HortResearch. HortResearch has a particular interest in investigating how the NZCS resources, in conjunction with the Advanced Network initiative, may lead to new approaches to solving complex scientific problems requiring vast amounts of computation effort. In addition to using the facility, the institutions will be providing feedback and input into the continued development of the centre. Connecting Globally Behind the scenes, work has also begun on a commercial "Computing on demand" booking system for the facility and is estimated to be up and running by mid-March. The system will allow customers to book the NZSC online by the number of processors for set time periods, depending on their needs. Gen-i has made the connectivity speeds and pricing models flexible in order to meet the variety of potential needs. Scott Houston, former CTO of Weta Digital, will be presenting the NZSC to a large pool of potential international customers at the New Zealand Pavilion at CeBIT 2005 in Hannover, Germany in March. The CeBIT conference and trade show has become one of the world's largest and leading events for information technology, telecommunications, software and services. For current and future customers, Telecom provides dedicated international connectivity to a number of global sites as well as dedicated national connectivity between all main centres up to one Gigabyte per second. Background: The NZSC is available to universities or research and development organisations - or indeed any institution across any sector that requires on-demand power and performance to analyse large amounts of data but lack the computing infrastructure. Other uses for the NZSC include computer-aided engineering, digital content and creation, economic and financial modelling, life science and geo-science research and development. Gen-i provides business solutions from the design and development of leading edge technology through to implementation and support. Gen-i's rapid uptake of proven technology, speed to market, flexibility and responsiveness gives its clients the competitive edge that is key to business success. Gen-i was purchased by Telecom New Zealand in July 2004. Telecom ownership adds a new level of strength, certainty, financial backing, and greater opportunities for clients. Now as a company of over 1000 people spanning New Zealand and Australia with a breadth of ICT services unparalleled in a local company, Gen-i is uniquely placed to provide value and support for clients in achieving their strategic business objectives. Telecom has a strong history in the New Zealand market and a growing presence in Australia. Telecom provides innovative and reliable information and communications technology (ICT) solutions, to enable customers to communicate when, where and how they want. For more information, visit www.telecom.co.nz