Cray Awarded $16 Million Contract from the DOD HPC Modernization Program
Global supercomputer leader Cray Inc. has announced that the Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Program (DOD HPCMP) has awarded a contract to Cray to significantly upgrade the program’s three existing Cray XE6 supercomputers. As part of the contract, Cray will also deliver a new Cray XE6m supercomputer to the Naval Research Laboratory in Monterey, California, which will be used by the organization’s Marine Meteorology Division.
In 2010, Cray was awarded a contract to provide three Cray XE6 supercomputers to the DOD Supercomputing Resource Centers (DSRCs) at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) located at the Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, the Arctic Region Supercomputing Center (ARSC) in Fairbanks, Alaska and the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Under the terms of the contract Cray is announcing today, Cray will double the number of processor cores in each of the three systems by upgrading the Cray XE6 supercomputers to the AMD Opteron 6200 Series “Interlagos” processors. Additionally, Cray will combine these separate systems into one petascale supercomputer, which will be located at the DSRC at ERDC.
“Breaking through the challenges faced by the Department of Defense research, development, test and evaluation communities requires increasingly powerful supercomputers in addition to the unique expertise that the HPCMP provides,” said John E. West, director of the DOD HPCMP. “Cray has been a technology partner of the HPCMP for many years, and we look forward to continuing that relationship through the deployment of these systems.”
“Our organization conducts a research and development program that’s focused on improving the basic understanding of atmospheric processes, studying the effects of the natural environment on Naval weapons systems, and developing environmental forecasting systems for DOD users,” said Dr. Jim Hansen, head of the Meteorological Applications Development Branch. “High performance computing is crucial to our work, and the Cray XE6m provides a unique opportunity to perform operational demonstrations of real-time advanced environmental prediction capabilities in support of US Navy Fleet exercises.”
The upgrade to the three systems and the consolidation into one large Cray supercomputer, as well as the delivery of the Cray XE6m system to the Naval Research Laboratory, are expected to be completed later this year. The initial contract is valued at more than $16 million in product revenue and also includes separately priced options for multi-year maintenance service.
“The DOD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program plays a vital role in ensuring that the DOD’s researchers and engineers are equipped with advanced supercomputing technologies, and Cray is honored to continue to be a major partner for this important program,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “Upgrading these Cray XE6 systems, and ultimately combining them into one petascale supercomputer, is a great example of the approach we take in designing Cray supercomputers and the value we deliver to our customers. We strive to lower the total cost of system ownership for our customers by giving them the ability to easily upgrade and significantly expand their systems, which also reduces the environmental impact associated with replacing an entire supercomputer.”