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SGI Japan wins order for Linux supercomputer

TOKYO - SGI Japan Ltd has received an order from the government-affiliated Institute of Statistical Mathematics for a high-end Linux supercomputer equipped with 256 64-bit microprocessors and 1.9 terabytes of shared memory.

The order is worth an estimated 1.5 billion yen (US$13.78 million) and represents the largest Linux system order SGI Japan has ever received.

The Altix 3700 supercluster will boast a numbers-crunching capability of 1.3 teraflops, and will use shared memory helps to save time by eliminating the need to write programs that tell the microprocessors how to apportion computational tasks.

Thus, even though the initial system cost is high, operating costs will be low compared with computer systems that allocate separate memory to each microprocessor.

The Institute of Statistical Mathematics operates under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.

The institute plans to use its powerful new computer to run macroeconomic models and other complex programs, such as disaster-prevention simulations and computation-intense tasks in the life sciences.

(Asia Pulse/Nikkei)

Nov 19, 2003

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