NCAR’s construction on schedule

CHEYENNE – The future home of one of the world’s largest supercomputers is almost complete outside Cheyenne.

Major construction at the National Center for Atmospheric Research-Wyoming Supercomputing Center is wrapping up this August, and crews will start to test the facility’s infrastructure while administrators are set to select the supercomputer that will occupy the site this fall.

The center will allow scientists to run complex computer models and processes to answer questions relating to climate change and weather forecasting, including the formation of hurricanes and tornadoes, and numerous other fields of scientific research.

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Officials from NCAR, based in Boulder, the University of Wyoming, the Wyoming Business Council and other partners and supporters, including Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead, participated in a site tour on June 10.

“To say you have one of the fastest computers in the world is a great message,” Mead said.

NCAR currently houses several supercomputers at its Mesa Laboratory in Boulder, but the Wyoming center will increase the agency’s computing capabilities by 15 to 20 times. The massive new supercomputer will also benefit researchers and students at the University of Wyoming who will get a substantial share of the computing resource.

Wyoming, businesses ante up

Construction began last June, after NCAR and its managing agency, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, decided in 2007 to locate the supercomputer center in Wyoming instead of Boulder.

“Wyoming won hands down in the competition, and that’s why we’re here today,´ said Rick Anthes, UCAR’s president.

A number of cost factors swayed the 2007 decision, including $20 million contributions from state of Wyoming and the University of Wyoming, the donated 26.4-acre site space in the North Range Business Park from Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development group for Cheyenne and Laramie County, and inexpensive electric costs through the utility, Cheyenne Light, Fuel & Power.

“It’s as good an example as you’ll ever see of industry, government and higher education working together,´ said University of Wyoming president Tom Buchanan.

The proposition has now become a strategy for Wyoming business leaders. The local climate, the state’s broadband services, and inexpensive power resources all helped Wyoming attract the center out of Boulder and Colorado, and the network of partners are marketing those same amenities to woo other data centers.

“We have at least half a dozen serious conversations going on now with companies that are looking at data-center expansion here in Wyoming,´ said Bob Jensen, Wyoming Business Council CEO. “We have all the pieces.”

LEED building standards

The $70 million building will take advantage of the region’s cool and dry climate to optimize supercomputer operations. Data centers in other areas often rely on massive heating and chilling systems, but the climate and elevation of the Front Range of Wyoming (and Colorado) minimizes the need for intensive systems. The Wyoming center will discharge no water to treatment plants, and the facility’s raised and vented floors will increase energy efficiency, helping to meet the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED building standards. At least 10 percent of the facility power will come from wind energy, a proportion that could increase over time.

NCAR and its design partners have also built the center to accommodate future computer technology innovation and growth, a concept known as “future proofing” that should allow technology that doesn’t yet exist to be incorporated when it becomes available.

Anke Kamrath, the operations and services director for the Computational and Information Systems Laboratory at the National Center for Atmospheric Research, is leading the search for the supercomputer. She said the new system will operate on the “petaFLOP” scale, meaning it can process a quadrillion (that’s one thousand million million) floating point operations, or math calculations, per second.

The supercomputer will cost another $25 million to $30 million, with a share of that money coming from the National Science Foundation. Kamrath and other officials expect to choose a supercomputer by this fall, which would then be ready for testing in early 2012. Full operations should start in the summer of next year, with about 25 employees expected to be on site for maintenance and security.

Models and simulations

Once the supercomputer center opens, scientists will utilize the facilities for a number of inquiries into climate science, air pollution and atmospheric chemistry, aviation safety, seismology, and many other research fields. In terms of studying hurricanes and tornadoes, the supercomputer should be able to model and simulate high-resolution systems that allow researchers to look at an individual storm cloud.

“We might not realize it, but we are all users of information that has come from research conducted on supercomputers,´ said NCAR’s director Roger Wakimoto, in an agency press release. “If severe drought or flooding is expected to hit a region, then residents, farmers and businesses need to know in advance. If a solar storm is likely to hit Earth, telecommunications companies need to be prepared for disrupted satellite communications and power companies need to monitor the electrical grid. Even tomorrow’s high and low temperatures or whether it might rain or snow are based on simulations developed on supercomputers. Advanced warning of potential disasters can protect lives and livelihoods.”

Bryan Shader, a University of Wyoming mathematics professor and special assistant to the vice president of research, jokes that the school’s share of the facilities allows scientists and students to use the supercomputer one day a week: “We get it on Tuesdays,” he quipped.

Under the agreement that brought the center to Cheyenne, the university will provide $1 million each year for 20 years and, in exchange, university researchers can claim 20 percent of the supercomputing resource. Shader said the school will use its access to the powerful tool to leverage collaborations with other colleges. Otherwise, universities must make agreements through NCAR if scientists want to run models at the facility.

Wyoming administrators are already identifying research projects being done in university labs that can be scaled up to take advantage of the supercomputer’s capabilities. The considerable access to the NCAR center will also allow the school to build on recent efforts to enhance its reputation and recruitment in computational science and related fields.

“For the last 15 years, we’ve been trying to develop resources in scientific computing,” Shader said. “This now gives us a tier-one resource, and plugs in faculty with NCAR.”