Communications of the ACM
Predicting Success With Niwa Supercomputer
New Zealand's National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research's high performance computing facility.
Credit: Michael Uddstrom / NIWA
New Zealand's National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (NIWA) announced that it has launched the most powerful computer in the southern hemisphere. The new supercomputer can perform 34 trillion calculations a second and can store 5 petabytes on tape. It is 100 times faster and has 500 times more disk space than the current model.
NIWA says scientists will use the supercomputer to forecast the impact of severe weather events, such as flooding, storm surge, and inundation; and model climate change, river flow, ocean levels, and wave patterns. In addition, bioengineers at Auckland University will use the supercomputer to create computer models of the human body, which could lead to new approaches to diagnosing and treating patients as well as in developing new medicines.
View a video of NIWA's supercomputer program.
Phase two of the installment will be completed next year, which will double the speed and the disk space of the supercomputer.
From New Zealand Dominion Post
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