Search
Sites and Affiliations
Leadership
Research and Applications
Major Accomplishments
Frequently Asked Questions
Knowledge and Technology Transfer
Calendar
Education and Outreach
Media Resources
Technical Reports and Publications
Parallel Computing Research - Our Quarterly Newsletter
Contact Information
CRPC Home Page

UniGuide Featured Site

UT unveils the fastest computer in Texas
Supercomputer does more math in 1 second than human can in 500,000 years

From: Austin American Statesman, November 15, 1996
By Dick Stanley, American-Statesman Staff


When the blue curtains parted, Lonestar didn't blink or stir.

The dozens of University of Texas scientists milling around it did.

They came to the J.J. Pickle Research Campus in North Austin for Thursday's unveiling of UT's newest and fastest supercomputer, nicknamed Lonestar.

They wanted a look at the machine they will use for computer modeling - an increasingly common scientific method of visualizing such inaccessible things as exploding stars and hidden petroleum reserves under Alaska.

The $1.8 million Cray T3-E Massively Parallel Computing System - three gray 6-by-6 foot metal boxes filled with 44 microprocessors and 26 hard-disk drives - is expected to do it quicker and better than anything now available to them.

"It's the fastest in Texas," said Mary Wheeler, the engineer-director of UT's Center for Subsurface Modeling.

So how fast is it? Scientists said Lonestar, which will be networked to computer terminals on the main UT-Austin campus, can perform more calculations in one second than a person could do by hand in 500,000 years.

That, they said, is 24 billion arithmetic operations a second, known in computer trade as 24 gigaflops.

Lonestar's potential stakeholders are a varied lot.

British Petroleum, a financial backer of Wheeler's center, wants her to use it to find hidden petroleum reserves in Prudhoe bay, Alaska.

The Air Force is counting on Gary Pope, a UT petroleum engineer, to help clean up contaminated ground water at a base in Utah. Lonestar will help Pope figure out how to proceed.

J. Craig Wheeler, an astronomer who is not related to Mary Wheeler, wants "to model exploding stars, by taking into account all the multidimensional aspects, and you need a big computer to do it."

Whooping cranes were on Bill Longley's mind.

The endangered birds depend on blue crabs in estuaries along the Gulf Coast where freshwater rivers mix with the saltwater.

The crabs need just the right salinity to survive.

"We want to determine the mix of flows and how to keep it just right while letting people use the water too," said Longley, an ecologist with the Texas Water Development Board.


Sites & Affiliations | Leadership | Research & Applications | Major Accomplishments | FAQ | Search | Knowledge & Technology Transfer | Calendar of Events | Education & Outreach | Media Resources | Technical Reports & Publications | Parallel Computing Research Quarterly Newsletter | News Archives | Contact Information


Hipersoft | CRPC