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AUSTRALIAN CENTER TO FURTHER HPC ENDEAVORS w/ $3.1M GRANT

Australia's state government provided $3.1 million in funding to Western Australia's Interactive Virtual Environment Centre (IVEC) in order to promote and improve the center's supercomputing use.

An increase in usage and demand for supercomputing power is forcing the new IVEC, IVEC2, to proceed with improvements to current technology. Approximately one-third of the money will be used to upgrade hardware and software at the center.

The new HPC center will be placed at the University of Western Australia and the Australia Resources Research Centre by the end of next year. The new facility is hoped to enhance the exploration of advanced computing technology and visualization, among other initiatives.

In addition, researchers hope these advances in computing and visualization will help spur economic development in the region as well. IVEC2, along with the universities involved in the venture, will help train graduate students in the HPC field and provide networked access to centers across Western Australia.

Some of the funding will be used to register and connect new network members and improve the current infrastructure.

An additional $600,000 will be used over three years to implement a 3D virtual environment to better understand mining accidents. The findings will help minimize the number of mine accidents, bringing the total funding to $3.7 million.

The funding is a joint venture between Central TAFE, CSIRO, Curtin University of Technology and the University of WA.