IBM gets the deal for the Synchroton research facility

The Australian Synchrotron and Monash University, in collaboration with CSIRO and the Victorian Partnership for Advanced Computing (VPAC), have selected IBM’s iDataPlex dx360 M3 integrated server solutions to support the creation of a Multi-modal Australian Sciences Imaging and Visualisation Environment (MASSIVE) facility.

Utilising the high-performance computing capacity and NVIDIA GPU technology, the facility will enable scientists to create, analyse, view and interact with high-resolution scientific images and 3D models that have been, to this point in time, too complex or large to visualise.

“Large-volume imaging capabilities are central to the scientific enterprise,” said Professor Paul Bonnington, Director of the Monash e-Research Centre.

“The advanced imaging facility, powered by IBM’s GPU-enabled high-performance computers, combined with a capacity for very fast processing of research data, will provide a truly unique facility to empower Australian research.”

MASSIVE, which is funded by its partners and by both the Victorian Government and the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) will provide scientists with the ability to undertake groundbreaking research in areas such as cancer.

The new facility will be located at the Australian Synchrotron and Monash University, and will allow researchers - across a variety of fields including biomedicine, geoscience, neuroscience, astronomy, engineering and climate studies - to build, analyse and manipulate multidimensional research data.

MASSIVE will be an integral part of the Imaging and Medical Beamline (IMBL) at the Australian Synchrotron, which is set to produce very high-resolution CT scans that require a high-performance computer system for the processing and visualisation of scientific samples. The system will allow scientists using the beamline to process and view data as soon as it is captured.

The newly appointed Australian Synchrotron Head of Science, Dr Andrew Peele, said today’s synchrotron science demanded technologies that could process, in real time, ever-increasing amounts of data.

“In the case of the IMBL, which will be operating with users from the middle of 2011, MASSIVE and the IBM technology behind it will provide our users with access to state-of-the-art research facilities,” said  Peele.

The MASSIVE facility, the first of its kind in Australia, will open in March 2011.