Lonestar supercomputer to ride at UT

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The University of Texas is getting another supercomputer in a $9 million system expected to support more than 1,000 research projects, the school and other groups announced Monday.

UT joined with the government's National Science Foundation and other partners for the Texas Advanced Computing Center to acquire a new Lonestar system. Another UT supercomputer, known as "Ranger," was dedicated in February 2008.

"As we did with the Ranger supercomputer, we want to make Lonestar a showcase system for researchers in Texas and throughout the world," said UT President William Powers Jr.

TACC, in partnership with Round Rock-based Dell Inc., Intel Corp., Mellanox Technologies and DataDirect Networks, Inc., will use an HPC system involving applications running on the NSF TeraGrid, according to a statement Monday. The new system is expected to replace the current Lonestar and will offer greater capabilities.

The new supercomputer will be made available for limited use in December and for general use by TeraGrid allocations early in 2011.

Texas A&M University, Texas Tech University and several research groups are also helping to fund the project.

"Advancing fundamental research in computational science and engineering is of vital importance to our researchers at Texas A&M," said school President R. Bowen Loftin.

Texas Tech President Guy Bailey says the Lubbock school is aggressively building its research infrastructure and access to resources to provide faculty and students with new opportunities for research and education.

"This partnership with UT Austin and TACC will help us ensure that our researchers have access to the best computational technology available," said Bailey.