PSSC Labs Builds Supercomputer for NASA Ames Research Center

The Hyperwall Will Allow NASA to Visualize Complex Models on Tiled Display

LOS ANGELES, CA (PRWEB) May 7, 2003 -- PSSC Labs announced today the completion and delivery of a new supercomputer for NASAs Ames Research Center. Scientists at the Ames Research Center are exploring the boundaries of traditional "powerwalls" by developing a unique visualization system that can display up to six dimensions. Designated a "Hyperwall", this visualization system offers the unique ability to display independent but meaningfully related images for comparison purposes.

This constitutes about our twenty-fifth project for NASA and our second for the Ames Research Center specifically. We are honored to be a part of these ground-breaking and exciting projects and we look forward to many more with the people at NASA," said Alex Lesser, VP of PSSC Labs.

PSSC Labs configured the operating system and cluster management software to meet NASA's exacting specifications. PSSC Labs Cluster Technicians installed Redhat's Linux 7.3 kernel, optimized for performance, along with the Ganglia Cluster Monitoring Utility and System Imager.

Fifty high-end servers, integrated by PSSC Labs, power the Hyperwall, Each server contains two AMD Athlon MP processors 2000+ mounted on Tyan Tiger S2466N motherboards. The display element of the Hyperwall is composed of a 7x7 matrix of 18.1" liquid crystal displays. Aggregate pixel count for the entire Hyperwall exceeds 64 million. Graphic displays are controlled by 128MB Nvidia Geforce 4 Ti 4600 AGP video cards.

According to NASA Ames research scientists, the Hyperwall is extremely adept at displaying a two-dimensional array of three-dimensional images; thereby providing a five dimensional view. Not content, these scientists are "currently attempting to provide a tool for interactively exploring the six dimensional electronic pair density function calculated for small molecules."1

"NASA needed a stable solution allowing for excellent floating point performance and high-end graphic capabilities," explained Lesser. "AMD processors in combination with Tyan motherboards and the nVidia graphic controllers offered an excellent solution for this great project."

Said Marty Seyer, Vice President of Server Business for AMD, "AMD Athlon MP processors provide the performance and reliability that is required of this kind of high-performance computing. We're pleased to work with PSSC Labs to provide the state-of-the-art processor technology that the NASA Ames Hyperwall will depend upon."

Don Clegg, Vice President of Tyan Computer Corporation is equally enthused by the Hyperwall, "PSSC Labs continues to exhibit the ability to deliver stable, high performance, computing solutions based upon Tyan products. That's why we're so pleased to be involved with them in providing solutions to prestigious organizations such as NASA."

About PSSC Labs
PSSC Labs provides high performance workstations, servers and Beowulf Supercomputing solutions to the world's most prestigious and demanding organizations. Since 1989, NASA, NIST, NIH, LANL, Sandia, US Department of Defense, Harvard University, MIT, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, Concurrent Pharmaceuticals and many more have looked to PSSC Labs for solutions to their HPC and High Speed Interconnect needs. Each system is custom configured to our customers' specific requirements, be it scientific research, visualization, real-time simulations or financial modeling. Our hardware knowledge, LINUX software expertise, fully integrated cluster management tools and unsurpassed lifetime support of our systems ensure that PSSC Labs customers receive the best the possible solution at the most competitive price. For complete details please call PSSC Labs at 949-380-7288 or visit www.pssclabs.com.

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