At an event marking a significant milestone for Intel and the scientific research community, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) unveiled its newest supercomputer, the Columbia, which is powered by 10,240 Intel® Itanium® 2 processors. Several Intel executives joined Intel President and Chief Operating Officer Paul Otellini at the ribbon-cutting ceremony at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California, home of the new supercomputer. 

^{NASA's 10,240-processor Columbia supercomputer is built from 20 Altix systems, each powered by 512 Intel Itanium 2 processors. (Image courtesy of Silicon Graphics, Inc.)}

The powerful system, built by Silicon Graphics Inc. (SGI), promises to revolutionize the rate of scientific discovery at NASA. Using only 16 of its 20 installed systems, Columbia achieved sustained performance of 42.7 trillion calculations per second, or 42.7 teraflops.

"If you could do one calculation per second by hand, it would take you a million years to do what this machine does in a single second," said G. Scott Hubbard, Ames' director.

The new performance record eclipses the performance of every supercomputer operating today and knocks NEC's Earth Simulator off its perch as the world's No. 1 machine—a spot it has held since 2002.

Much Faster Data Analysis
Columbia is already having a major impact on NASA's science, aeronautics, and exploration programs, in addition to playing a critical role in preparing the space shuttle for return to safe flight sometime in 2005. It is enabling scientists to conduct research and analyze complex data much faster in a variety of scientific disciplines. The research and analysis ranges from providing more accurate weather predictions, to climate change, and deep space exploration.

"The launching of the Columbia system shows what's possible when government and technology leaders work together toward a goal of truly national importance," said Otellini. "This Itanium 2 processor-based system is helping to accelerate scientific design and research faster than ever before. NASA's current missions both here on Earth and beyond are the agency's most important ever, and Intel is proud to play a part in their success."

Now that Columbia is fully operational, NASA plans to accelerate its scientific pursuits in a variety of fields: detailed hurricane predictions, global warming studies, electronic wind tunnel simulations, galaxy formation and supernova analysis, and experiments leading to safer space exploration.

Triggering a new age of scientific discovery, the powerful Columbia supercomputer already is providing real benefits for people. For example, reducing the potential destruction on life and property from natural disasters, NASA scientists have developed an improved global circulation model and can accurately predict when a hurricane is expected to hit land a full five days in advance—that's three days sooner than current models. 

The system revolutionizes NASA's capacity for conducting scientific research. For instance, on NASA's previous supercomputers, simulations showing five years' worth of changes in ocean temperatures and sea levels were taking a year to model. But using just a fraction of Columbia's horsepower, scientists can simulate decades of ocean circulation in just days, while producing simulations in greater detail than ever before. Similarly, the time required to assess flight characteristics of an aircraft design, which involves thousands of complex calculations, dropped from years to a single day. "With the completion of the Columbia supercomputer, NASA, SGI and Intel have created a powerful national resource, one that will serve scientists who strive to unlock the mysteries of this planet and the universe in which it dwells," said SGI Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Bob Bishop. With 10,240 processors at their disposal, NASA scientists throughout the U.S. will be able to tackle enormous technical challenges simultaneously, thus helping to dramatically boost productivity and lead to faster discoveries.   An SGI technician assembles part of the Columbia supercomputer. (Image courtesy of Silicon Graphics, Inc.)

A New Generation of Supercomputers
Unlike traditional supercomputer deployments that have taken years to roll out, Columbia was fully deployed in fewer than 120 days. The supercomputer was available to scientists throughout its installation, giving NASA and the U.S. government an immediate and revolutionary boost in tackling some of history's toughest scientific problems.

The record-breaking deployment has led some industry analysts to conclude that Columbia signals a significant shift, a new era in supercomputing design in which the most powerful computer systems can be deployed in weeks rather than many months or even years.

"With SGI and Intel, we set out to revitalize NASA's computing capabilities, and the Columbia system has done so in a spectacular way," said Walt Brooks, division chief, Advanced Supercomputing Division, NASA. "Only days after new 512-processor systems were installed, we had scientists doing real Earth and space analysis on them. The speed and ease with which this supercomputer came together was phenomenal, and the science that already has been produced has been extraordinary."

Learn More
Discover how Intel is architecting the Era of Tera.

Learn more about Intel Itanium processors.

Read the NASA press release of the Columbia announcement.