Georgia Institute of Technology Accelerates Drug Discovery With New IBM Supercomputing Cluster9 February 2006
IBM and the Georgia Institute of Technologytoday announced that one of the world's most powerful supercomputingclusters will anchor Georgia Tech's new Center for the Study of SystemsBiology.
The Center will use IBM technologies to advance research into new drugs forthe treatment of some of today's most life-threatening diseases, includingcancer. The Center's research will be headed by one of the world's leadingsystems biologists, Dr. Jeffrey Skolnick, the Georgia Research AllianceEminent Scholar in Computational Systems Biology.
Funded by $8.5 million in grants from the State of Georgia, the GeorgiaResearch Alliance and the National Institutes of Health, the new Center forthe Study of Systems Biology merges Dr.Skolnick's biomedical researchexpertise with IBM's high-performance computing capabilities to create abrand new supercomputer. The new supercomputing cluster running Linux willbe among the fastest in the world, and one of the most powerful amongresearch universities in the Southeastern United States. The cluster ishosted by BellSouth's world-class facilities in Midtown Atlanta.
"By using IBM technology for our research, we can significantly shorten thetime to market for new drugs," said Dr. Skolnick. "Systems biologyintegrates mathematics, physics, chemistry and biology with advanced, highperformance computing and engineering. Bioinformatics and systems biologyallow us to utilize the vast information growing out of the sequencing ofthe human genome, enabling drug developers to reduce the number ofcompounds they must screen by a factor of 10."
The 1000-node Cluster 1350 system built on IBM BladeCenter® systems andpowered by dual-core AMD Opteron™ processors is capable of performingmore than 8.5 trillion calculations per second, which would place it as theworld's 41st most powerful supercomputer based upon the November 2005TOP500 list (www.top500.org) of supercomputers. The system performance andscalability will offer students and faculty the ability to quickly andaccurately analyze complex DNA and proteins to determine the biological andchemical processes of human cancer genes and proteins, to aid in thedevelopment of more targeted drugs to treat such diseases.
"Universities today are looking for the fastest, most innovative andcost-efficient systems to help their intellectual communities translate theresearch they generate into viable information for the commercial market,"said Doug Balog, vice president, IBM BladeCenter. "With the Cluster 1350system based on the AMD Opteron LS20 IBM BladeCenter, students and facultyof Georgia Tech are gaining the processing power and system resources theyneed to make more accurate decisions in research and raise the profile ofthe Institute among the nation's most elite research facilities."
"Only the most technologically savvy universities are able to compete inthe field of drug discovery and bioinformatics," said Mike Cassidy,president and CEO of the Georgia ResearchAlliance. "Georgia Tech's focus on top-of-the-line technology and researchfacilities and the attraction of Dr. Jeff Skolnick and other world-classscholars will raise its presence in this competitive market and attractsome of the nation's brightest students to join our research team toadvance medicines that will improve the well-being of people everywhere."
BellSouth worked closely with Georgia Tech and IBM to design a unique,reliable hosting environment to support the high power densitysupercomputing cluster.
"With our hosting background, we had the flexibility and experience toquickly create a one-of-a-kind solution that could support Georgia Tech,IBM and the supercomputing cluster that will power the groundbreakingresearch of Dr. Skolnick," said Bill Smith, BellSouth's Chief TechnologyOfficer.
The new supercomputer, capable of a peak performance of more than 16TeraFlops, consists of a cluster of 1,000 AMD Opteron processor-based LS20nodes for IBM BladeCenter systems (total of 4,000 core processors) runningRed Hat Linux 4 on the infrastructure nodes and Scientific Linux on thecompute nodes. The supercomputer forms the basis of the IBM Cluster 1350, apre-packaged and tested super-cluster that is ultra-dense and easy tomanage.
"AMD64 technology delivers the processing power needed to run some of themost demanding supercomputers, without sacrificing performance-per-wattefficiencies," said Kevin Knox, vice president, Worldwide CommercialBusiness, AMD. "By working closely with IBM on their AMD Opteronprocessor-based BladeCenter cluster, we feel confident that researchers atGeorgia Tech will be better equipped to execute against demanding timelinesand ultimately help bring critical drugs and research to market evenfaster."
The technology from IBM also includes 28 terabytes of IBM DS4800 storageand 20 terabytes of IBM DS4100 storage to house the large volumes ofresearch data and provide a disaster recovery backup. Force10 TeraScaleE-Series family of switch/routers are also integrated into the IBMBladeCenter cluster to provide resilient interconnectivity enablingpredictable cluster performance and scalability that will allow GeorgiaTech to seamlessly expand its cluster.
"Network resiliency is key to ensuring computing cycles are not interruptedand that researchers gain the reliable computing power they need toefficiently analyze massive amounts of data," said Marc Randall, presidentand CEO at Force10 Networks. "IBM has taken its leading server technologyand combined it with our leading switch/router in a single high performancecluster solution to provide organizations like the Center for the Study ofSystems Biology with the computing power they require for advancedscientific research."
Also included with the solution is IBM Rear Door Heat eXchanger (code named"Cool Blue,") a technology component that can use the existing chilledwater supply for air conditioning systems already located in the majorityof customer datacenters to reduce server heat emissions into the room by upto 55 percent. Georgia Tech has deployed "Cool Blue" on 12 racks, reducingnoise and easing the burden on existing air conditioning units. The RearDoor Heat eXchanger can reduce first-time installation costs by as much as40 percent while lowering energy costs by almost 15 percent.
The cluster solution helps increase the overall performance of the Center'sdatacenter while lowering its total cost of ownership. The speed andflexibility of the systems also reduce the time it takes to completeresearch projects, allowing the Center more time to explore new commercialopportunities in the fields of pharmaceutical science and healthcare.
About BellSouth Corporation
BellSouth Corporation is a Fortune 100 communications company headquarteredin Atlanta, Georgia. BellSouth has joint control and 40 percent ownershipof Cingular Wireless, the nation's largest wireless voice and data providerwith 54.1 million customers. More information about BellSouth can be foundat http://www.bellsouth.com/.
About the Georgia Institute of Technology
The Georgia Institute of Technology is one of the nation's premiereresearch universities. Ranked ninth among U.S. News & World Report's toppublic universities, Georgia Tech educates more than 17,000 students everyyear through its Colleges of Architecture, Computing, Engineering, LiberalArts, Management and Sciences. Tech maintains a diverse campus and is amongthe nation's top producers of women and African-American engineers. TheInstitute offers research opportunities to both undergraduate and graduatestudents and is home to more than 100 interdisciplinary units plus theGeorgia Tech Research Institute. During the 2004-2005 academic year,Georgia Tech reached $357 million in new research award funding. TheInstitute also maintains an international presence with campuses in Franceand Singapore and partnerships throughout the world.
About the Georgia Research Alliance
A model public-private partnership between Georgia universities, businessand state government, the Georgia Research Alliance helps build Georgia'stechnology-rich economy in three major ways: through attracting EminentScholars to Georgia's research universities; through improving laboratoriesand equipment at these research universities; and through convertingresearch into products, services and jobs that drive the economy. To learnmore about GRA, visit www.gra.org.
About Force10 Networks
Force10 Networks is the pioneer in high performance switching and routing.Based on a revolutionary system architecture that delivers best-in-classresiliency and massive scalability, Force10's TeraScale E-Seriesswitch/routers ensure predictable application performance, increase networkavailability, and reduce operating costs. Today, many of the world'slargest Gigabit Ethernet and 10 Gigabit Ethernet networks depend on Force10Networks. For additional information, please visit the company's websiteat www.force10networks.com.
About IBM
IBM is the world's largest information technology company, with 80 years ofleadership in helping businesses innovate. Drawing on resources from acrossIBM and key Business Partners, IBM offers a wide range of services,solutions and technologies that enable customers, large and small, to takefull advantage of the new era of e-business. For more information aboutIBM, visit www.ibm.com.
IBM and BladeCenter are trademarks of the International Business MachinesCorporation in the United States and/or other countries. For a completelist of IBM Trademarks, see www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml.
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Media contacts:
Vineeta DuraniIBM Corporation415-545-2350vdurani@us.ibm.com
David TerrasoGeorgia Institute of Technology404-385-2966david.terraso@icpa.gatech.edu
Kathleen RobichaudGeorgia Research Alliance404-385-0043krobichaud@gra.org
LeAnn H. BoucherBellSouth Corporation404-986-0330leann.boucher@bellsouth.com
Marian Herbst KelleyAMD512-602-7712marian.kelley@amd.com
Peter RuzickaForce10 Networks Inc.408-965-5151pruzicka@force10networks.com
SOURCE: IBM and Georgia Institute of Technology
Source: marketwire
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