Thanks to the generous support of the Stanford Bio-X program, the Schools of Medicine and Engineering, the Dean of Research and SGI , Stanford has acquired a 128 processor SGI Origin 3800 shared memory supercomputer to support biocomputation research at Stanford. This supercomputer will enable research efforts ranging from subcellular and cellular level computing such as genomics, developmental and structural biology, to organ system level computing including cardiovascular and musculoskeletal biomechanical modeling. The supercomputer has been installed in the Gates building until construction is completed on the Clark Center and is being administered by the Computer Science Computer Systems Support Group. A subcommittee of the Center for Biomedical Computation at Stanford is overseeing the usage of this supercomputer and the allocation of resources.

The criteria for using this supercomputer are: (1) a Stanford academic status of faculty, staff or student, (2) resources can only be used for biocomputation research or teaching.

The process for using this supercomputer are to first request an account and then submit a brief proposal for cpu time and disk space. The exploratory research proposals provide for modest allocations without providing preliminary data and evidence that your software is well-suited to the system architecture (e.g. scalable, parallel). The full research proposals require sufficient preliminary data and are encouraged only after an exploratory project has been completed. A continuing proposal is intended to provide additional resources to complete research proposed in a full proposal.

System administration questions can be addressed directly to
action@acropolis.stanford.edu