More than 1,000 sophisticated computer processing units soon will be connected at five U.S. locations, including Indiana University (IU), creating a supercomputing network that will aid research requiring enormous data processing capacity for modeling and analyzing climate systems.
IT researchers at IU were chosen to head a four-year, $15 million project to design software that will allow for supercomputers to connect and use massive processing that isn’t available to researchers today. The National Science Foundation will fund two-thirds of the project, known as FutureGrid. The remaining $5 million will be provided by outside project partners.
Indiana officials said the construction of a supercomputer grid also will be a boon for researchers and students on campuses that share the I-Light network, which has provided high-speed internet connections for businesses, government agencies, and Indiana schools such as Ball State University and Purdue University since 1999.