NSF Awards $45 Million to Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center

The next U.S. supercomputing system operating at speeds well beyond a trillion calculations per second will reside at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) through an expected $45-million award from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Last week, the National Science Board (NSB), NSF's governing body, authorized the three-year award following a national competition. Pending negotiations between NSF and PSC, the Terascale Computing System (TCS) would begin operation in February 2001, reaching peak performance by the end of that year. 

The TCS will be incorporated into the NSF Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure program as a third leading-edge site, joining the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at Urbana, Illinois and the San Diego Supercomputer Center in California. Computational scientists and engineers across the U.S. will access the TCS through a nationwide grid of research networks. 

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center was established in 1986 by its partners at Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Pittsburgh, and Westinghouse. To be built by Compaq Computer Corporation, the TCS is expected to reach 6 trillion operations per second at peak performance. 

NSF's proposed budget for fiscal year 2001 includes requested funds for a second terascale facility. Pending approval by Congress, that competition would begin in late 2000, with an award decision by fall 2001. 

More information on the Terascale Computing System can be found at: 

http://www.interact.nsf.gov/cise/descriptions.nsf/pd/tcs/  The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center’s web address is http://www.psc.edu/