ACADEMIA

Noblis announced that a next-generation Cray XMT supercomputer has been delivered to the Noblis Center for Applied High Performance Computing (CAHPC) in Danville, Va. The CAHPC is the first facility in the United States, outside of a federal laboratory or academic facility, to house a Cray XMT supercomputer.

The CAHPC, a collaborative effort between Noblis and Cray, a global leader in supercomputing, was created to accelerate the development and commercialization of applications requiring graph analytics and to increase U.S. competitiveness and create sustainable high-tech jobs. The Center will promote the development of High Performance Computing (HPC) applications and train the next generation of developers to innovate using HPC.

Former Governor George Allen toured the CAHPC as part of a City of Danville-organized tour of renovated buildings and local economic revitalization projects. Gil Miller, Noblis Vice President and CTO, and Will Mitchell, Noblis' Danville site leader, led the tour. Noblis President and CEO Amr ElSawy and Allen spoke by video teleconference between the CAHPC and the Noblis Innovation and Collaboration Center in Falls Church, Va.

"I think Noblis locating here in the old tobacco warehouse district is fantastic," said former Virginia Governor George Allen. "They are bringing the most elaborate and best high speed computers that are available. What I really like is the collaboration of a colocation between Northern Virginia and Southside Virginia. More important is the innovation that is going to be coming forward and the transformation that is going to arise. I think this is going to be wonderful for jobs and for showing the capabilities of the Danville area. I really commend Noblis for having the vision to invest here."

According to Cray, the XMT is a "scalable massively multithreaded platform with a shared memory architecture for large-scale data analysis and data mining. The system is purpose-built for parallel applications that are dynamically changing, require random access to shared memory, and typically do not run well on conventional systems." Noblis partnered with Cray because the XMT's multithreaded technology is ideal for pattern matching, identifying data anomalies, building detailed scenarios and data visualizations, and doing graph analysis.

"The delivery of this supercomputer is the first step in the CAHPC's mission of taking HPC out of the lab and into the field to solve real problems," Miller said. "The computer and its 128 processors will be used to solve complex problems requiring access to large amounts of data. Our next step is to benchmark the new XMT to see how it compares to other supercomputers."

Noblis provides expert technical and advisory services in systems engineering, science and technology, program management, and acquisition services in areas such as national security, transportation, healthcare, sustainability, and enterprise transformation. Noblis is honored to support organizations with critical national responsibility, including the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Aviation Administration, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Department of Labor, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.