ACADEMIA

Landmark, a part of Halliburton's Digital and Consulting Solutions Division, selected the new Silicon Graphics Prism platform to create the world's fastest and largest advanced visualization computer system in the oil and gas exploration field. Landmark, working with Silicon Graphics and Intel, will soon offer its global clients real-time, 3D interactivity on multiple volumes of seismic data at a newly designed facility within its Houston, Texas, headquarters. The Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system will enable Landmark customers to quickly explore large numbers of deepwater offshore blocks using massive regional surveys. Also, they will be able to bring oil and gas production online faster by using this 3D environment to interactively plan optimal well paths using all of their geological and geophysical data. Landmark, the market leader in Volume Interpretation software, has installed a Silicon Graphics Prism system with 64 Intel Itanium 2 processors, eight ATI graphics pipes and 640GB of Dataram memory in a 64-bit Linux operating system environment. Landmark will be porting its premiere GeoProbe Volume Interpretation system to the Silicon Graphics Prism platform. The GeoProbe system is unique in its ability to work with multiple volumes and to run interactively on extremely large data sets. This system will enable customers to visualize seismic data sets at close to a Terabyte (TB) in size. Landmark already envisions adding enough memory to reach 1TB within the year. Dataram's high capacity memory dimms make these large memory configurations possible from both performance and cost perspectives. "Landmark chose Silicon Graphics Prism because it is the only system that can handle the large data volumes that our customers want to interpret using the GeoProbe system," said Jonathan Lewis, vice president, Innovation and Marketing, Halliburton's Digital and Consulting Solutions Division. "The GeoProbe system is both a Multithreaded and Multipipe application. Combining these qualities with Silicon Graphics Prism provides a unique system that will allow our customers to redefine the boundaries of what is possible in Volume Interpretation." Landmark, which offers more than 100 software products, also has a long association with Intel. Intel has assisted Landmark in software engineering and optimization for Intel platforms as well as in marketing efforts. Intel partnered with SGI to ensure Landmark would have the most powerful, largest visualization system in the energy industry. "Intel has been working with Landmark and SGI for years to help deliver affordable, high performance solutions to the energy marketplace," said John E. Davies, vice president of the Sales and Marketing Group and director of the Solutions Market Development Group for Intel Corporation. "Our next-generation Intel Itanium 2 platform continues to address the larger and larger problems oil and gas companies are solving that result in more accurate drilling and ultimately faster time to oil." Landmark acquired the Silicon Graphics Prism system as part of the process of upgrading, rebuilding and redefining The POD, a unique visualization environment for oil and gas exploration and field development. The POD contains a 45-foot spherical screen, 12 feet high, with an approximate 160-degree view of a single screen image. The addition of the Silicon Graphics Prism system allows Landmark to offer its customers the services of a world-record-breaking facility in its Houston office where Landmark will not only provide the software environment, but also interpretation services through its consulting organization. "By selecting Silicon Graphics Prism, Landmark has installed the most powerful, most significant, visualization machine in the oil and gas exploration business," said Kevin McLaughlin, vice president of engineering, Visual Systems Group, SGI. "SGI blazed the trail in visualization and immersive collaboration in the automobile, manufacturing, sciences and government industries. Now the concept of seeing all the data and using all the interpretations at the same time is being applied to the energy sector. Determining the optimal well path for exploration creates a completely new standard for large seismic data visualization and can revolutionize the energy industry."