A supercomputer is just something that's faster than what standard computers are at that time

So for instance, the phone you carry around in your pocket is actually more powerful than

the first supercomputers in the 1960s

So there are a few different ways to make a supercomputer

One is just to build a big, fast computer

But the other is to link together a bunch of different computers and make them act as a single system

So the Intel 14 cluster that was just installed is a very powerful computer

It's a top 500 supercomputer by the time you add up all the components

So how much energy does that supercomputer really use?

Well, 100 kilowatts

So what does that actually mean?

So 100 kilowatt hours is enough to power 100 households

100 kilowatts, you can also think of that as the ability to power 150 iPhones for an entire year

One of the things that's exciting about the new Intel 14 cluster

is the increased performance capabilities compared to our existing cluster

Our previous system only had 1500 processor cores in it on our largest system

Altogether we had about 3000

The new cluster adds 4000 cores for researchers

By comparison, your laptop, desktop or cellphone may have one to four cores

The High-Performance Computing Center was started by Michigan State University

to provide advanced computational research to researchers and enable their science to go faster

Research that's done on the HPC generally falls into three categories

Simulation, data analysis, and search

Many universities across the country have realized the importance of the computational sciences

in studying a broad range of problems ranging from issues in liberal arts, to

genomics, to bioinformatics, to chemistry,

So it has a really broad range of applications, engineering as well

and so in response to this, Michigan State University decided it would be critical to establish

an institute like iCER to address and provide support for people interested in carrying out computational research

My name is Kelly Osborn and I'm the Director of Business Operations here at iCER

You can categorize iCER services into three different categories

HPCC, the High-Performance Computing Center

consulting, we offer many different types of consulting, often one-on-one if your case calls for that

and the third would be training. We are currently expanding training

but right now we do offer training to different faculty, students, undergrad as well as post-doc and graduate students

I really welcome you to iCER, please contact any staff member. We are really here to help you