ADNOC acquires latest high performance computer from SGI for oil reservoir studies

The machine, based on SGI's global shared-memory system architecture, offers up to four times greater performance compared to the existing system at ADNOC.

The new system uses one single image of the operating system, and unlike the cluster technology, this architecture is much easier to deploy and use. The technology allows fast access to all data in the system's memory directly and efficiently, without having to move data through I/O or networking bottlenecks. Applications that run on the Altix are simulations, computational fluid dynamics, computational chemistry, and data and systems analysis.

Gilbert Soufan, General Manager, SGI Middle East and North Africa, said, "SGI's leading edge technology has helped ADNOC in critical areas of oil and gas exploration and production. The newly installed high performance computer at ADNOC will provide the company a significant advantage in the area of oil reservoir studies. The computing capabilities of our system are unsurpassed in the industry and we are certain that ADNOC will benefit immensely from this implementation."

Scaling to 512 Intel® Itanium® 2 processors and up to 6 Terabytes of global shared memory in a single platform, the Altix 3700 Bx2 is SGI's newest and most powerful Linux® solution for high performance computing. Altix 3700 Bx2 leverages the powerful SGI® NUMAflex™ global shared-memory architecture to derive maximum application performance from new high-density CPU bricks. The latest configuration also doubles available bandwidth between Altix bricks with SGI's NUMAlink™ 4 interconnect technology, which is the industry's fastest at 6.4GB/sec and less than 1 microsecond MPI latency.