Penguin Computing, experts in high performance computing (HPC) solutions, today announced that it has built one of the world’s largest supercomputers for the Center for the Study of Systems Biology at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), one of the leading research universities in the U.S. Ranking within the top 100 supercomputers in the world, Georgia Tech’s massive MYRIAD cluster comprises over 10,000 CPU cores with a 100 TFLOP (teraflop) theoretical maximum performance. Georgia Tech’s Systems Biology group headed by Dr. Jeffrey Skolnick is using MYRIAD for large-scale computer simulations of proteins and cell models, with the aim of accelerating the process of drug discovery, as well as the diagnosing and treating disorders such as cancer.

Skolnick noted, “Penguin’s expertise and commitment to high-performance computing can be seen through the power, sophistication, density and efficiency of the MYRIAD supercomputer. Moreover, Penguin’s customer service and dedication to making this highly complex cluster essentially ‘plug and play’ for Georgia Tech added to the notable cost and time efficiencies of this project. We look forward to continuing to work with Penguin Computing as a partner in accelerating the important work in systems biology research at Georgia Tech.”

MYRIAD demonstrates the power of the industry’s most advanced hardware, delivered in a massive, extremely dense, high-performance Linux cluster. Penguin developed MYRIAD using quad-socket AMD Opteron compute blades using the latest AMD six-core CPUs packed into a highly dense platform. It has over 320 terabytes of storage, over 4.5 miles of cable and uses 300 kilowatts of power.

Penguin Computing is focused on building and delivering complete, state-of-the-art high-performance computing (HPC) solutions, quickly and cost-efficiently. It delivered the first installation of the MYRIAD supercomputer to Georgia Tech as a fully-assembled, racked and cabled system only eight weeks after winning the contract in July, 2009. Two months after that, in December, 2009, MYRIAD went into live production at Georgia Tech.

“We are extremely proud of the MYRIAD system at Georgia Tech, not just because of its technical superiority, but the timeframe in which we were able to deliver it,” said Charles Wuischpard, CEO at Penguin Computing. “The Center for the Study of Systems Biology at Georgia Tech is a true leader in their field, and we are honored that we could play a significant role in supporting their efforts to advance research for cancer and other major diseases.”