News Release 05-124
Pittsburgh Center Unveils a Bigger, Faster Supercomputer Called "Big Ben"
NSF's Bement says the machine is "a significant leap" in research and education capacity
Big Ben is Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center's new high-performance computer.
July 20, 2005
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Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center (PSC) now has it own "Big Ben" -- only this technological bellwether rings out in teraflops. PSC acquired Big Ben, the first XT3 system to be shipped from Cray, Inc., with a $9.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
Big Ben can perform 10 teraflops, or 10 trillion calculations, per second, making it 2.4 times faster than PSC's former high-performance computing leader, LeMieux. But like LeMieux, Big Ben will serve as an integral component in the NSF-supported TeraGrid, the world's largest, most comprehensive cyberinfrastructure for open scientific research.
A host of dignitaries attended the July 20 ceremony, including NSF Director Arden L. Bement, Jr. and the foundation's assistant director for Computer and Information Science and Engineering, Peter A. Freeman.
For more information about Big Ben and the ceremony see the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center site or read director Bement's remarks as prepared.
-NSF-
Media Contacts
Richard (Randy) Vines, NSF, (703) 292-7963, email: rvines@nsf.gov
Michael Schneider, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, (412) 268-5869, email: schneider@psc.edu
Program Contacts
Jose Munoz, NSF, (703) 292-8970, email: jmunoz@nsf.gov
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