High performance computing has become increasingly important to both experimental and theoretical investigations in the sciences. Theoreticians require advanced computation and huge volumes of storage to increase understanding of the behavior of systems ranging from the sub-atomic to stars, galaxies and beyond, while experimentalists increasingly rely on advanced storage systems to accommodate and make sense of the mountains of data ingested from an ever growing array of specialized instrumentation.

SGI Solutions for Multi-Disciplinary Research allow scientists to maximize application performance and research flexibility. They allow single users, departments and computer centers to:

• Choose high-performance computing solutions tailored to workload and budget.
• SGI® Altix® systems run Linux® and are based on Intel® Itanium® 2 processors and enable compute, memory and I/O scaling within a single shared memory environment. These systems are unsurpassed in their memory and I/O capability and deliver exceptional MPI application performance due to their low-latency and high-bandwidth SGI® NUMAflex® architecture.
• SGI® Altix® XE servers and clusters are based on the dual-core Intel® Xeon® processors which deliver industry leading performance per CPU in an industry standards based Linux single system and cluster environment. These solutions are designed to maximize throughput capacity and scalable application performance for cluster based applications.
• Dynamically adjust the mix of applications to changes in research priorities. SGI Altix systems maximize flexibility since they can run single compute intensive, memory intensive or I/O intensive applications that take advantage of the full capabilities of the system or be used to run multiple medium to small simulations in throughput mode. SGI Altix XE systems can be combined with SGI Altix systems in cluster environments to maximize the performance of multiple application workloads.
• Address huge amounts of data and move it quickly into and out of the system. SGI Altix systems implement globally shared memory so that any CPU can directly address any byte of memory or I/O device. By using the SGI® NUMAlink™ interconnect fabric, data is accessed at rates up to 200 times faster than possible using conventional clustering interconnects. Complex data sets and complete workflows can run directly in memory instead of requiring I/O, enabling productivity breakthroughs that traditional Linux clusters or repurposed e-commerce UNIX® servers can't tackle.
• Develop breakthrough solutions with advanced computing technology. By integrating FPGA based SGI® RASC™ technology into Altix systems, users can develop breakthrough capabilities that run 10, 100, or even 1,000 times faster than traditional solutions.
• Focus on science, not system and data management. The Altix architecture enables easy installation and administration of a single system, while SGI's data management solutions simplify the storage and archiving of large data sets. SGI Altix servers and SGI Altix XE servers and clusters can be integrated into a single system management and data sharing environment that minimizes system management overhead. By freeing scientific staff to focus on science instead of system and data management, productivity and innovation increase.
• Maximize ROI. The SGI Altix and Altix XE servers and SGI storage systems deliver scalability and high performance in a cost-effective package.

For additional information:

• SGI® InfiniteStorage Solutions for The Sciences: Reducing Time to Insight through Sophisticated Data Management (PDF 4.2M)
• SARA Computing and Networking Services: A major Computing and Storage Infrastructure for Grand Challenge Science (PDF 318K)
• Data Life Cycle Management at NASA Ames (PDF 278K)