IBM, Brown Build Largest Supercomputer in R.I.

The IBM supercomputer at Brown University is 50 times more powerful, six times more energy efficient and can hold 70 times more memory than the system it's replacing. Researchers and scientists across the region will have access to the supercomputer, which will have a peak performance of more than 14 teraflops. The supercomputer includes IBM's iDataPlex and holds 1,440 microprocessors. The Marine Biological Laboratory, in Woods Hole, Mass., will be one of the first users.

IBM has built a multimillion-dollar supercomputer at Brown University in Rhode Island that will help researchers there and throughout the region tackle a host of computational projects. The center opened Nov. 20.

The supercomputer at the Providence, R.I., university's Center for Computation and Visualization will run at a peak performance of more than 14 teraflops—or trillion floating -oint calculations per second—and is 50 times more powerful than the system it's replacing, according to IBM and Brown officials.

The supercomputer will be a boon for research not only at the university but across the region, according to Brown officials. The university and IBM plan to work with other schools, hospitals, businesses and government agencies across Rhode Island in determining how best to use the supercomputer.

They also will conduct a series of symposia that will involve scientific experts considering how the system can be used to address societal problems in the state.