The Ohio Supercomputer Center (OSC) soon will boost scientific and industrial discovery and innovation even more effectively across the state by offering researchers the services of a powerful new supercomputer, to be built later this year by Dell.

Chancellor John Carey today announced that the new system will increase the center’s total computing capacity by a factor of four and storage capacity by three. The $9.7 million investment, which received approval from the State Controlling Board in January, is part of a $12 million appropriation included in the 2014-15 Ohio biennial capital budget. The remainder of the appropriation is targeted for ancillary systems and facilities upgrades to support the new supercomputer.

“From the time the Ohio Supercomputer Center was created in 1987, OSC has been charged with advancing research in academia and industry across the state through the provision of high performance computing services,” said Carey. “Deploying this new system at the center will give Ohio researchers a powerful new tool with which they can make amazing discoveries and innovative breakthroughs.”

OSC is a member of the Ohio Technology Consortium, the technology and information arm of the Ohio Department of Higher Education. The center currently offers computational services via three supercomputer clusters: the HP/Intel Ruby Cluster, the HP/Intel Oakley Cluster and the IBM/AMD Glenn Cluster. The Glenn Cluster and part or all of Oakley will be retired soon to make sufficient space and power available for the new supercomputer.

“This major acquisition will make an enormous positive impact on the work of our clients, both academic and industrial,” said David Hudak, Ph.D., interim executive director of OSC. “Our current systems are running near peak capacity most of the time. Ohio researchers are eager for this massive increase in computing power and storage space.”