CHAMPAIGN, IL -- The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded $53 million to four U.S. research institutions to build and deploy a distributed terascale facility (DTF). The DTF will be the largest, most comprehensive infrastructure ever deployed for scientific research--with more than 13.6 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second) of computing power as well as facilities capable of managing and storing more than 450 terabytes (trillions of bytes) of data.

The four research institutions in the DTF project are the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at the University of California at San Diego, Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne), and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Each institution plays a key role in the NSF's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program, which is building the 21st century's information infrastructure. NCSA leads the National Computational Science Alliance (Alliance), and SDSC leads the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI). Argonne is a major Alliance partner, and Caltech is a key NPACI partner. The partnership expects to work primarily with IBM, Intel Corporation, and Qwest Communications to build the facility, along with Myricom, Sun Microsystems, and Oracle Corporation.

Linux clusters purchased through the DTF award and distributed across the four DTF sites will total 11.6 teraflops of computing power. In addition, two teraflop Linux cluster systems already in use at NCSA will be integrated into the DTF system, creating the 13.6-teraflop system--the most powerful distributed computing system ever. Besides offering the world's fastest unclassified supercomputers, the DTF's hardware and software will include ultra high-speed networks, high-resolution visualization environments, and toolkits for grid computing. All of these components will be tightly integrated into an information infrastructure dubbed the "TeraGrid." Scientists and industry researchers across the country will be able to tap this infrastructure to solve scientific problems.

"Nothing like the DTF has ever been attempted before. This will be the largest, most comprehensive infrastructure ever deployed for open scientific research," said Dan Reed, director of NCSA and the Alliance and a principal investigator of the DTF award. "Unprecedented amounts of data are being generated by new observatories and sensors, and groups of scientists are conducting new simulations of increasingly complex phenomena. This new age of science requires a sustainable national infrastructure that can bring together new tools, powerful computers, and the best minds in the country. This is the infrastructure that will allow us to solve the most pressing scientific problems of our time."

The DTF will consist primarily of clustered IBM servers based on Intel® Itanium family processors interconnected with Myricom's Myrinet. It will build upon two existing clusters of 1,300-plus Itanium and IA-32 processors already deployed at NCSA. The clusters will operate as a single distributed facility, linked via a dedicated optical network that will initially operate at 40 gigabits per second and later be upgraded to 50-80 gigabits per second. This DTF network, developed in partnership with Qwest, will transport data 16 times faster than the fastest research networks now in operation. It will connect to Abilene, the high-performance network that links more than 180 research institutions across the country; STAR TAP, an interconnect point in Chicago that provides access to and from international research networks; and CENIC's CalREN-2, an advanced high-speed network that connects institutions in California. In Illinois, the I-WIRE optical network will provide the DTF with network capacity and will give Argonne and NCSA additional bandwidth for related network research initiatives.

"Breakthrough discoveries in fields from biology and genomics to astronomy depend critically on computational and data management infrastructure as a first-class scientific tool," said Fran Berman, director of NPACI and SDSC and a principal investigator of the DTF award. "The TeraGrid recognizes the increasing importance of data-oriented computing and connection of data archives, remote instruments, computational sites, and visualization over high-speed networks. The TeraGrid will be a far more powerful and flexible scientific tool than any single supercomputing system."

"The investment we have made in VentureTECH has helped secure this award and once again shows our ability to leverage substantial new resources for Illinois," said Governor George H. Ryan. "I am proud to acknowledge the National Science Foundation's recognition of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Argonne National Lab's leadership in the Distributed Terascale Facility initiative," said Ryan.

Each of the four DTF sites will play a unique role in the project.
--NCSA will lead the TeraGrid project's computational aspects with an IBM Linux cluster powered by the next generation of Intel® Itanium processors, code named McKinley. The cluster's peak performance will be 8 teraflops, combining the DTF-funded systems and other NCSA clusters, with 240 terabytes of secondary storage.

--SDSC will lead the TeraGrid data and knowledge management effort by deploying a data-intensive IBM Linux cluster based on Intel Itanium family processors (McKinley). This system will have a peak performance of just over 4 teraflops and 225 terabytes of network disk storage. In addition, a next-generation Sun Microsystems high-end server will provide a gateway to grid-distributed data for data-oriented applications.

--Argonne will lead the effort to deploy advanced distributed computing software, high-resolution rendering and remote visualization capabilities, and networks. This effort will require a 1-teraflop IBM Linux cluster with parallel visualization hardware.

--Caltech will focus on providing online access to very large scientific data collections and will facilitate access to those data by connecting data-intensive applications to components of the TeraGrid. Caltech will deploy a 0.4-teraflop IBM Itanium processor family (McKinley) cluster and an IA-32 cluster that will manage 86 terabytes of online storage.

"The NSF is a leading indicator of future bandwidth demand, and the launch of this network provides the latest and largest step in bandwidth demand, not unlike the NSFnet, which was the original core of the Internet," said Wesley Kaplow, chief technology officer of Qwest Government Systems Division. "A number of industries will be able to witness the power of these incredibly high-speed network and computer systems, fueling the demand for network bandwidth to connect their U.S. and worldwide supercomputing systems."

"The DTF project uses computational building blocks based on the Itanium processor family to empower scientific and business communities to address problems of monumental importance. These problems range from astrophysical research such as black hole simulation, to molecular modeling for the discovery of new drugs and cures, to crash simulations that protect human life while reducing costs in the automotive industry," said Abhi Talwalker, vice president and assistant general manager, Enterprise Platforms Group, Intel Corporation. "Intel is committed to supporting this kind of important research with Intel-architecture-based building blocks and solutions enabling efforts that allow governments, educational institutions, and industry to afford and sustain the highest performance possible."

"IBM's leadership in supercomputing technology and our commitment to Linux and open standards enable us to provide the world's most powerful computers," said David Turek, IBM vice president of Linux emerging technologies. "Leveraging our strong relationship with Intel and Myricom in conjunction with Qwest, we look forward to building a Grid computing system that represents an important step in the evolution of the Internet and scientific collaboration."

Building and deploying the DTF will take place over three years.

About NCSA and the Alliance
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the leading-edge site for the National Computational Science Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge high-performance computing, networking, and information technologies. The National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund NCSA.

The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to prototype an advanced computational infrastructure for the 21st century and includes more than 50 academic, government, and industry research partners from across the United States. The Alliance is one of two partnerships funded by the National Science Foundation's Partnerships for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (PACI) program, and receives cost-sharing at partner institutions.

About SDSC and NPACI
The National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) is advancing science by creating a ubiquitous, continuous, and pervasive national computational infrastructure: the Grid. This infrastructure for the 21st century builds on dramatic advances in information technology to enable distributed research by interdisciplinary teams. NPACI is funded by the National Science Foundation and led by the San Diego Supercomputer Center. It joins some 30 other funded partners and 16 domestic and international affiliates and collaborates with the Alliance members on numerous projects.

SDSC is an organized research unit of the University of California at San Diego, and the leading-edge site of the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI). As a national laboratory for computational science and engineering, SDSC is funded by the National Science Foundation through NPACI and other federal agencies, the State and University of California, and private organizations.

About Argonne National Laboratory
The nation's first national laboratory, Argonne supports basic and applied scientific research across a wide spectrum of disciplines, ranging from high-energy physics to climatology and biotechnology. Since 1990, Argonne has worked with more than 600 companies and numerous federal agencies and other organizations to help advance America's scientific leadership and prepare the nation for the future. Argonne is operated by the University of Chicago as part of the U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory system.

About Caltech
Founded in 1891, Caltech has an enrollment of some 2,000 students and a faculty of about 290 professorial members. The Institute has more than 19,000 alumni. Caltech employs a staff of more than 2,400 on campus and 4,800 at JPL. Over the years, 28 Nobel Prizes and four Crafoord Prizes have been awarded to faculty members and alumni. Forty-seven Caltech faculty members and alumni have received the National Medal of Science; and eight alumni (two of whom are also trustees), two additional trustees, and one faculty member have won the National Medal of Technology. Since 1958, 13 faculty members have received the annual California Scientist of the Year award. On the Caltech faculty there are 78 fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; and on the faculty and Board of Trustees, 70 members of the National Academy of Sciences and 46 members of the National Academy of Engineering.

*Intel is a registered trademark and Itanium is a trademark of Intel Corporation.

More Comments About the Distributed Terascale Facility Award
"The DTF will be a tremendous national resource. With this innovative facility, NSF will demonstrate a whole new range of capabilities for computer science and fundamental scientific and engineering research, setting high standards for 21st Century deployment of information technology."
--Rita Colwell, director, National Science Foundation

"Supercomputing traditionally has been associated with weather and aircraft design. Recent breakthroughs in chemistry and the life sciences, however, have presented an even greater demand for advanced computation. If we are to achieve the performance necessary to support these new applications, we must develop capabilities to harness the collective power of not only dozens of supercomputers but thousands of individual PCs. The DTF will provide critical insight into building such systems, while immediately enabling new classes of science."
--Rick Stevens, Alliance chief computational architect and director, mathematics and computer science division, Argonne National Laboratory

"An exciting prospect for the TeraGrid is that, by integrating simulation and modeling capabilities with collection and analysis of huge scientific databases, it will create a computing environment that unifies the research methodologies of theory, experiment, and simulation."
--Paul Messina, director, Center for Advanced Computing Research, California Institute of Technology

"Qwest is very pleased to participate in the DTF program with our partners at NCSA, SDSC, Argonne, and Caltech. Providing the first-in-kind super-powered network enabling distributed supercomputing for the nation's scientific community and infrastructure for the nation's scientific research community is an honor, and it reflects Qwest's continuing commitment to providing leading edge technology. The DTF network also underscores the fact that discovery, technology, and lifestyle continue to increase the need for greater networking bandwidth and capabilities. This is another example of Qwest making the impossible possible!"
--Wesley K. Kaplow, chief technology officer, Qwest Communications Government Systems Division

"Myricom is proud to be one of NCSA's corporate partners for the DTF project. The Myricom technical team has worked closely with NCSA from the developmental phase to the production use of cluster computing. We are looking forward to continued technical collaborations as the DTF leads the way to widespread use of terascale clusters in support of research in science and engineering."
--Charles L. Seitz, CEO and CTO, Myricom

"This award demonstrates the wisdom of this state's and this University's long-term investments in computer technology and its intellectual underpinnings for four decades. And it demonstrates that we have the talent and other resources to do the job today in a highly charged and competitive environment. We are proud that the NSF chose NCSA and its partners for a wonderful new opportunity to extend the benefits of supercomputing everywhere and grateful to all who made that possible."
--James Stukel, president, University of Illinois

"This award reflects NSF's confidence in the long and distinguished history of computing at Illinois, and especially in NCSA . I am grateful for that confidence and for Dan Reed'sleadership of NCSA, which made today's action possible."
--Nancy E. Cantor, chancellor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

"I am pleased by the decision of the National Science Board to recommend funding the proposal submitted by the University of Illinois for the Distributed Terascale Facility. This project, which will create the largest publicly accessible supercomputing and data storage resource in the country, is an integral part of our nation's commitment to basic research. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois and its research partners at Argonne National Laboratory, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, and the California Institute of Technology, are ideally suited to carry this project forward and ensure America's preeminence in the information technology field."
--Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives (IL-14)

"As the representative whose district includes the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, I have always known it is a special place. It has been a particularly special place for computing and computational science since the first electronic computers were created. Many film and science fiction fans know us as the place where HAL, the computer in the book and film 2001, was manufactured. It seems only right that in the real year 2001 the National Science Board and the National Science Foundation have approved funding for a major computational project led by the U of I's National Center for Supercomputing Applications, This project will create the largest publicly accessible supercomputing and data storage resource in the world connected by the fastest network ever developed. I fully support this initiative, and I will continue to advocate for increased federal investment in crucial information technology research. I applaud the vision and leadership of NCSA Director Dan Reed and his research team, and I look forward to learning about the innovations and applications that these remarkable new computational resources will enable."
--Timothy V. Johnson, U.S. Representative (IL-15)

[NOTE: Representatives of NCSA, NSF, SDSC, Intel, IBM, and Qwest will host a teleconference to discuss the details of this announcement and answer questions at 3:30 p.m. CDT (4:30 EDT, 1:30 PDT) on Thursday, Aug. 9. Press and analysts may join the teleconference by dialing (888) 202-2422. Press in the Champaign-Urbana area can attend the conference live at 5239 Beckman Institute (405 N. Mathews, Urbana).]

Contact:
Karen Green
NCSA Communications Director
kareng@ncsa.uiuc.edu