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High-performance computing comes to southern Taiwan

Industry in southern Taiwan is expected to benefit from a new facility that will allow companies there the same access to computing facilities as those in the north.

The first branch of the National Center for High-performance Computing, under the National Science Council, was opened in May in the Tainan-based Science Industrial Park.

The national center, founded in 1991, was established to create a single, centralized, nationwide network for computing resources.

Its first branch will strengthen the existing high-speed communication network, mainly by making the country's two major high-tech parks in Hsinchu and Tainan more interactive.

"The branch will balance the development of industries in the north and the south, promoting levels of R&D of industries in southern Taiwan," Yu Shiann-jeng (余憲政), deputy director of the center, said last week during a visit to the branch.

The Tainan branch is connected to the center's headquarters in Hsinchu, home to a recently purchased IBM POWER4 processor costing NT$106 million.

Officials said that the new processor lifted Taiwan from the top 100 in the world in terms of supercomputing power to the top 60.

They said that the processor would be completely assembled by the end of September, quadrupling the center's computing capacity.

"Both industry and academia will benefit from the processor, which will be the fastest in Asia outside Japan," said Tsai Whey-fone (蔡惠峰), deputy director of the center.

For example, Tsai said, the processor would be useful for calculating information related to biotechnology.

In addition, Tsai said, the center is focusing on building a core network that would link several research sub-networks together.

Through international collaboration on high-performance computing technology, Tsai said, the center links Taiwan to several global networks, promoting international exchange over the Internet.

Officials said that the union of computing and networking would help advance academic research and accelerate industrial development.

Tsai said that many scientific research communities were making use of the center, including those related to water resources management, disaster prevention studies and nanotechnology.

Tsai said that the center would promote more collaborative programs in the future.

For example, Tsai said, the center recently worked with Chang Gung University and manufacturers of peakflow meters, hand-held devices that measure the maximum velocity of air expelled from people's lungs. The project was to develop a meter to constantly monitor asthma sufferers through networks to allow prompt treatment when they suffer asthma attacks.
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