AMD COVID-19 HPC Fund Adds 18 Institutions to Fight COVID-19

High performance AMD EPYC CPUs and Radeon Instinct GPUs to power COVID-19 focused research at Stanford School of Medicine, The University of Texas at Austin, UCLA, University of Toronto and other institutions across the U.S., Europe, and India

AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) today announced a second round of high-performance technology contributions to assist in the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic. AMD is now contributing high-end computing systems or access to Penguin-On-Demand (POD) cloud-based clusters powered by 2nd  Gen AMD EPYC™ and AMD Radeon Instinct™ processors to 21 institutions and research facilities conducting COVID-19 research. With 12 petaflops of total supercomputing capacity now awarded, the combined compute capacity donated through the AMD COVID-19 HPC Fund would rank among the fastest supercomputers in the world according to the most recent Top500 list.

“AMD is proud to be working with leading global research institutions to bring the power of high performance computing technology to the fight against the coronavirus pandemic,” said Mark Papermaster, executive vice president and chief technology officer, AMD. “These donations of AMD EPYC and Radeon Instinct processors will help researchers not only deepen their understanding of COVID-19, but also help improve our ability to respond to future potential threats to global health.”…Read More

When defense meets education

DARPA said it recognizes that it must work hard to win back the attention of top researchers.
DARPA said it recognizes that it must work hard to win back the attention of top researchers.

Thanks to a new direction at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the phrase “always 10 years behind” no longer might apply to education: The agency that developed GPS and the internet is stepping up its efforts to deliver new technology to sectors other than the military—and schools will be among the key beneficiaries.

As part of its newly expanded focus, DARPA is advancing its collaborative work with universities. One example of DARPA’s new focus on collaboration with the education sector is the agency’s work with Louisiana State University (LSU).

A research group with LSU’s Center for Computation and Technology has received two awards to provide technical contributions to DARPA’s Ubiquitous High Performance Computing Program (UHPC).…Read More

‘Global volunteer computing’ leads to scientific discovery

Networked computers can act in concert to form a virtual supercomputer to perform very large tasks.
Networked computers can act in concert to form a virtual supercomputer to perform very large tasks.

Ordinary computers like those folks use to send eMail or surf the internet are being credited with finding a previously unknown neutron star, highlighting the changing nature of research in the era of grid computing.

Home office computers in Ames, Iowa, and Mainz, Germany, were cited Aug. 12 in the discovery of fast-rotating pulsar called PSR J2007+2722.

It was the first scientific discovery for the project, known as Einstein@Home, which uses spare computer power donated by 250,000 volunteers in 192 countries, according to Bruce Allen, director of the effort.…Read More