High Performance

Sophisticated modeling and crash simulation work require the latest in computing technology and expertise. These very resources are available in NCAC's High-Performance Computing Laboratory (HPCL).

The HPCL supports all of NCAC's computational needs and assists other universities and organizations that conduct crash simulation work for the FHWA and NHTSA. With the tools available in the HPCL, safety experts can run complex vehicle and roadside safety hardware crash simulations and then render, animate and duplicate them to videotape.

Working with the government and the computer industry, the laboratory helps to set goals, address issues and use innovations that improve crash simulation and performance. The HPCL team continually seeks ways to reduce simulation time and provide the leading-edge tools and technology that NCAC's researchers need to address and solve safety problems as quickly and efficiently as possible.

At the center of the HPCL is the Silicon Graphics® (SGI®) Origin® 3800 server.¹ This state-of-the-art supercomputing system offers:

• Thirty-six 1.6GHz/18MB, Intel® Itanium 2® processor-cores capable of 108.3 Gflops of computational capacity
• Four-way shared, cache-coherent non-uniform memory access (72GB)
• SAS disk array (3.3 TB) that sunstains 200 MB per second of performance and features redundant paths.

• Thirty-two 600MHz/8MB, MIPS® R14000™ superscalar processors capable of 33.2 Gflops of computational capacity
• Two-way shared, cache-coherent non-uniform memory access (8 GB)
• Fibre channel disk array (800 GB) that sustains 160 MB per second of performance and features redundant paths.

The Origin 3800 enables researchers to perform the extraordinarily complex calculations required to simulate vehicle crashes. The large shared memory accommodates very large models, and the system can run several jobs concurrently and use a number of state-of-the-art crash simulation and design programs, including LS-DYNA, PAM-CRASH, RADIOSS, MSC.Dytran and Madymo.

In addition to its supercomputing capacity, the lab installed and maintains a Gigabit Ethernet network of SGI workstations capable of supporting high-end three-dimensional CAD graphics and finite-element model development and post-processing capability. At the core of the HPCL network is a Force10 E300 switch/router. It also includes systems to handle batch processing and benchmarking for validation and verification tasks. With these state-of-the-art workstations, automotive safety experts can create powerful computer models and simulate crash events to identify safety options for vehicles and highway hardware.

The HPCL operates the NCAC Library's digital media streaming server, provides a large shared storage system and operates all high-performance computing resources, network services and email for GW's Virginia Campus. The laboratory installed the first high-performance ATM digital communicates network at GW. The laboratory also maintains a PC-based network for NCAC's hands-on training classroom.

• HP Itanium-based Server System evaluation