High performance boost for CSIR arm

Silicon Graphics Systems (India) and Intel Technology India announced that Centre for Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS), a CSIR research body has invested in SGI and Intel’s high performance computing technology and solutions for its weather forecasting and climate research programmes.

C-MMACS’s newest acquisition is the Itanium 2 processor-based SGI Altix 350 server that will enhance weather and ocean modelling work for rainfall prediction in India. The newly -installed server with 12 Itanium 2 processors will be used to run MOM4–a code used extensively by ocean and weather modelling agencies around the world. The Modular Ocean Model (MOM) is a numerical representation of the ocean’s hydrostatic primitive equations, and is designed primarily as a tool for studying the global ocean climate system. The onsite technical co-operation between SGI and Intel engineers helped C-MMACS scientists to recompile the code on the SGI Altix 350 platform with Intel compilers on 64-bit Linux. This resulted in a considerable performance improvement over previously used platforms.

“With this deployment, we will be able to establish ourselves as a leading user of future-proof technologies in the research sector. It will also add a critical dimension to our IT infrastructure, enabling C-MMACS to enhance our research and development capabilities,” said Dr Gangan Pratap, scientist-in-charge, C-MMACS.