Supercomputer aids Navy oceanographers

[unhappycamper]

Supercomputer aids Navy oceanographers
By Andrew Scutro - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 6:55:30 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. — Water-cooled and measuring only 800 square feet, the Power 575 Hydro-Cluster is about as sexy as a supercomputer gets.

It’s smart, too: The $12.6 million system can make 90 trillion calculations per second, making it one of the 500 fastest supercomputers in the world.

And the Navy has one.

Technically owned by the Defense Department, it’s installed and currently being field-tested at the Naval Oceanographic Office at Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, where it will perform in-depth weather and ocean condition forecasting.

Where current modeling by supercomputer is limited to specific areas, the increased capacity of the Power 575 Hydro-Cluster will allow oceanographers to predict sea conditions over vast areas of ocean for the Navy and Coast Guard.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/08/navy_supercomputer_081808w/