Cray Inc. has announced that the Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP) has awarded Cray a $26 million supercomputer contract for a next-generation Cray XC supercomputer and a Cray Sonexion storage system. The systems will be placed at the HPCMP’s DoD Supercomputing Resource Center (DSRC) located at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL).

 

The HPCMP will use this next-generation Cray XC supercomputer to run advanced, complex simulations that deliver scientific discoveries, technological advances and analyses that provide soldiers with the capabilities to execute full-spectrum operations.

 

“Supercomputing is a key enabling technology for the DoD as it continues mission critical work to improve both the safety and effectiveness of the U.S. military,” observed John West, director of the HPCMP. “These newly acquired Cray systems ensure that scientists and engineers in the DoD’s research, engineering, and evaluation communities will continue to be able to take advantage of a robust computing ecosystem that includes the best computational technologies available today.”

 

In operation for more than 20 years, the DoD HPCMP remains focused on its mission to accelerate technology development and transition into superior defense capabilities through the strategic application of high performance computing (HPC), networking and computational expertise. The HPCMP provides the people, expertise and technologies that increase the productivity of the DoD’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation community.

 

“Cray has been fortunate to be a partner of the DoD’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program throughout the years, and we take great pride in providing their researchers and engineers with powerful supercomputing technologies,” said Peter Ungaro, president and CEO of Cray. “Our next-generation XC system is our most advanced supercomputer ever, and we are excited and proud that our compute and storage solution will be a valuable resource for the HPCMP’s incredibly important mission.”

 

The Cray XC series of supercomputers are engineered to meet the performance challenges of today’s most demanding high performance computing (HPC) users. Special features of the Cray XC series of supercomputers include: the industry-leading Aries system interconnect; a Dragonfly network topology that frees applications from locality constraints; innovative cooling systems to lower customers’ total cost of ownership; the next-generation of the scalable, high performance Cray Linux Environment supporting a wide range of applications; Cray’s HPC optimized programming environment for improved performance and programmability, and the ability to handle a wide variety of processor types.

 

The Cray Sonexion storage solution will include more than four petabytes of storage capacity, including SSD technology, running at speeds approaching half of a terabyte per-second of bandwidth. Cray’s Sonexion storage system combines Cray’s Lustre expertise tightly integrated in a unique design that allows scalability from five gigabytes per-second to more than a terabyte per-second in a single file system. Management and operations are simplified through an appliance design with all storage components including software, storage and infrastructure.

 

The initial contract, awarded by US Army Engineering and Support Center, Huntsville, is valued at more than $26 million in product revenue and also includes four separately priced one year options for maintenance. The system is expected to be installed in late 2014.