Network & Academic Computing Services will soon upgrade the Convex C3840, the principal NACS numerical computation server, to a Hewlett-Packard Exemplar SPP2000 with 16 CPUs and 2 Gigabytes of memory. The SPP2000 will provide more than ten times the computing performance of the C3840 and will provide a comprehensive parallel computing environment for the first time within NACS for research and educational applications.
Major application software currently on the C3840 will also be available on the SPP2000 including MARC/MENTAT, Gaussian-94, GCG, and IMSL. In addition to these applications and compilers (Fortran90, C and C++), the new machine will have MPI (Message Passing Interface) and PVM (Parallel Virtual Machine), two widely used libraries for developing parallel applications based on message-passing. The Global Shared Memory (GSM) model for developing parallel applications is also supported in Fortran90. Assistance from NACS will be available to the current users of the C3840 for migration of their user-developed computer codes to the new machine.
NACS will be offering a variety of workshops and other educational opportunities on parallel computing using the SPP2000 in coming months. Please check the NACS Web page to obtain the latest information about the SPP2000. For additional information, please send e-mail to NACS@UCI.EDU, or contact Donald Frederick of NACS, FREDERIK@UCI.EDU or (949) 824-3200.