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WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, OH -- It took four semi trucks Monday to deliver the eighth largest computer in the world to the Aeronautical Systems Center’s Major Shared Resource Center here. “As the number of MSRC customers increase, so does the enormity of the projects, which was why the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Office in Arlington, Va., decided that the current user requirements dictated a doubling of the center’s capacity,” said Larry Davis, HPCMO deputy program manager. The program office team determined that the Compaq ES-45, listed at around $34 million, with its Tru64 Unix operating system, would meet the increasing workload. Part of an upgrade known as Technology Insertion 2001, the system is one of a series of upgrades to ensure that their computational capabilities increase to meet the ever-expanding needs of the war fighter. Its 836 processors will operate at 1,000 MHz each, giving the MSRC a peak performance capability of 1.67 trillion calculations per second—enough raw computational power to process all income tax returns for 2001 in half a second. Researchers from the Department of Defense, the Air Force Research Laboratory, academia and industry use the high performance computers to assist in solving complex technical problems. “Whether it is a change to weapon system configuration, looking at the molecular make-up of new materials or how a missile penetrates a particular material, the ability of high performance computing is only limited by our ability to apply it,” said Pat Montanaro, deputy for high performance computers at the MSRC. “Scientists and engineers use the MSRC to do non-destructive testing through modeling and simulation to predict the vulnerability of an aircraft. Getting the required capability to the war fighter is our number one goal. Using high performance computing, in some cases, can reduce the schedule and cost to a program.” Modeling and simulation before flight-testing also can improve safety. Montanaro recalls a flight test video of an F-18 with a bomb that would not release. “The aerodynamics kept the bomb bouncing around under the wing,” he said. “The pilot was okay, but the results of the test could have been disastrous. Today we can simulate bomb and missile release from a fighter at different Mach numbers. In fact, we compared a simulation to the real test and you cannot tell the difference.” The Air Force contracting team awarded a $12.8 million contract to Nichols Research Corp., a unit of the Computer Sciences Corporation, Aug. 24. CSC purchased the Compaq and will integrate the computer system as well as provide upgrades to the other existing computers in the center. ---------- By Susan M. Barone, ASC Public Affairs