FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
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AMD Athlon™ Processor
Gaining Global Recognition as Supercomputing Superstar
AMD Athlon™ Processor Gaining
Global Recognition as Supercomputing Superstar
-- NASA, National Science Foundation-funded university research programs
in the U.S., universities in Hong Kong and Japan employ AMD Athlon?
processor-based supercomputers --
SUNNYVALE, CA--May 17, 2001--AMD today
announced that five more academic institutions have each installed
new supercomputers using the award-winning AMD Athlon? processor.
Cited for their powerful performance, scalability, and flexibility
to expand in a cluster environment, a series of AMD Athlon processor-based
supercomputers have been employed for research programs at the Hong
Kong University of Science & Technology, the Tokyo Institute of
Technology, a National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)
funded program at the University of California at Santa Cruz (UCSC),
as well as National Science Foundation (NSF) funded programs at Western
Michigan University and Calvin College. These wins demonstrate how
the AMD Athlon processor is continuing to expand its reputation as
a powerful, innovative and reliable solution for supercomputing platforms
used for scientific research.
"This once again proves our AMD
Athlon processor is a great choice for cutting-edge computer platforms
targeted for computation-intensive applications created by academic
researchers," said Ed Ellett, vice-president of Workstation and
Server Marketing for AMD. "As the need for increased performance
and bandwidth continues, we are committed to developing more powerful
processors to meet that challenge. We eagerly look forward to supporting
critical research projects with leading academic institutions around
the world." The Hong Kong University of Science & Technology,
one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in Hong
Kong, has developed a supercomputer featuring 80 AMD Athlon processors.
"This AMD processor-based cluster
provides a powerful tool for the advancement of scientific research,"
says Associate Professor P W Leung of HKUST's Physics Department.
"We can perform realistic simulations, design advanced composite
materials through accurate modeling, and also tackle the most challenging
problems in modern material physics involving complex materials where
the electronic states are strongly correlated."
The Tokyo Institute of Technology,
one of the most prestigious higher education institutions in Japan,
has built the PRESTO III, a 78 AMD Athlon processor-based cluster
that will be employed at the Matsuoka Laboratory of the Global Scientific
Information and Computing Center & Department of Mathematical
and Computing Sciences.
"The objective of the PRESTO
series of Grid clusters project is to enable cost-effective solutions
to empower the computational Grid, investigate effective software
used for commodity clustering, and conduct simulation and application
studies on the Grid for various scientific applications such as operations
research, high energy physics, and neuroscience," said Professor
Satoshi Matsuoka of the Tokyo Institute of Technology. "We want
to thank the sponsors of Japan's national PRESTO program of the Japan
Science and Technology Corporation (JST), and AMD for its processor
technology."
The National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) has helped fund a 32 AMD Athlon processor-based
cluster node supercomputer located at UCSC. The UCSC supercomputer,
developed and built by Racksaver, Inc. through the assistance of Dolphin
Interconnect, will be used to study collisional processes in the solar
system, and run simulations of planetary dynamos, such as the one
responsible for Earth's magnetic field.
"The university's Earth Sciences,
Astronomy and Physics departments now have the ability to solve complex
research problems 24 hours a day, seven days a week on our own local
research cluster," said Erik Asphaug, UCSC principal investigator
of the new 32-node research supercomputer. "Also, we can now
create, archive, and visualize our data locally, and this removes
the data bottlenecks and enhances our student's educational environment."
Another 32-node supercomputer has
been installed at the ParInt Research Group at Western Michigan University
under an NSF-funded grant. "Very early on in our purchasing decision
process we decided to go with AMD Athlon processors, for their performance
and pricing, and we have not been disappointed," said Elise de
Doncker, Professor in the Computer Science department at Western Michigan
University. "The cluster has been very reliable and invaluable
to our research efforts in parallel numerical integration, and for
class projects in various advanced computer science courses."
"The Department of Computer Science
at Calvin College is committed to providing its students with hands-on
experience using cutting-edge technologies, including high performance
computing," said Joel Adams, Professor of Computer Science, Calvin
College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the location of an 18 AMD Athlon
processor-based cluster. "The cluster will also greatly benefit
our faculty researchers in their individual research programs. We
are grateful to the National Science Foundation, NFP Enterprises,
and AMD for their help in making this a successful project."
This trend follows AMD Athlon processor-based
supercomputers already installed in the University of Delaware, the
University of Kentucky, and the University of Utah, and reflects a
growing number of universities obtaining and benefiting from the use
of powerful supercomputer systems based on AMD processor technology.
Each of these systems employ the Beowulf Cluster design architecture,
which involves connecting each processor in parallel to maximize speed
and processing power while providing inter-communications between
the processors and compute nodes, and use a Linux-based operating
system.
