Harvard takes IBM’s Blue Gene to heart

IBM on Thursday announced that Harvard University is using an IBM Blue Gene supercomputer, which holds the title as the fastest supercomputer in the world, to support research into the human heart and circulatory system.

Harvard’s Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences is deploying a Blue Gene System that includes 4,096 PowerPC processors in two racks, covering an area of less than three square-meters. IBM says the system uses four times less space and five times less power than a traditional cluster providing equivalent processing power.

The deployment is the largest Blue Gene system in academia, IBM says. A larger version is running at the Lawrence Livermore national Laboratory and is currently ranked as the fastest supercomputer in the world.

IBM designed Blue Gene to give customers extreme processing power while greatly reducing size and power demands.

The system at Harvard is called the CrimsonGridBGL and is an expansion of the Crimson Grid, which is a more traditional computing Grid that IBM deployed at Harvard in 2003.

The CrimsonGridBGL offers peak performance of 11 trillion floating point calculations per second. Blue Gene is able to calculate complex problems quickly – and simultaneously – thanks to its thousands of processors and low latency connections.

Initially, projects that will run on Blue Gene will include modeling complex, vast systems or events such as: the human hemodynamic (blood circulation) system; cell self-assembly and tissue morphogenesis as they relate to fundamental processes underlying cardiac organogenesis (the development of the heart); computer system behavior; the mechanical response of materials used in advanced integrated circuits; and the formation history of galaxies.

“With the tremendous computational capabilities of the Blue Gene system, research deployment, or the ability to handle multiple projects at the same time, will increase five-fold,” Jayanta Sircar, CIO at DEAS and the director of the Crimson Grid Project, said in a statement. “The existing grid infrastructure, which you can think of as an entry point to accessing the Blue Gene system, will provide a consistent and integrated high speed network for managing workflow.”

Would you recommend this article?

Share

Thanks for taking the time to let us know what you think of this article!
We'd love to hear your opinion about this or any other story you read in our publication.


Jim Love, Chief Content Officer, IT World Canada

Featured Download

Featured Articles

Cybersecurity in 2024: Priorities and challenges for Canadian organizations 

By Derek Manky As predictions for 2024 point to the continued expansion...

Survey shows generative AI is a top priority for Canadian corporate leaders.

Leaders are devoting significant budget to generative AI for 2024 Canadian corporate...

Related Tech News

Tech Jobs

Our experienced team of journalists and bloggers bring you engaging in-depth interviews, videos and content targeted to IT professionals and line-of-business executives.

Tech Companies Hiring Right Now