Switching technology gives boost to Nasa supercomputer

The US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) has bolstered its Columbia supercomputer with high capacity switches for data transfer.

The 4 Gbit/s switches allow vast levels of information generated by Columbia to flow into a 600 terabytes Storage Area Network (San) system at the administration's Ames facility.

Named after the space shuttle that crashed in 2003, the Columbia system is capable of 60 trillion calculations per second and is used to perform astrophysical calculations as well as work on spacecraft safety.

The San switches are helping fulfill Nasa’s mission to advance knowledge and space exploration, says Alan Powers, a contractor with the administration's Advanced Supercomputing Division at the Ames Research Centre where Columbia is based.

'By operating one of the world’s fastest supercomputers, Ames requires an extremely robust storage infrastructure,' he said.

'The Brocade systems ensure that the terabytes of data that Columbia produces are stored reliably and quickly, giving researchers prompt access to the information for analyses.'

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