According to a press release dated July 11, the National Science Foundation has selected the University of Texas’ Texas Advanced Computing Center as a leadership-class computing facility to lead national research projects, investing $457 million in the project.
The foundation’s initial investment will cover additional staffing, construction of a new data center and overall improvements to the facility, which will become a national resource, said Katie Antipas, the foundation’s director of advanced cyberinfrastructure.
“(This facility) will be the largest advanced computing system in the nation,” Antipas said. “It will serve a national need, and it’s important to note that (the Texas Advanced Computing Center) will actually host and lead it.”
Ed Walker, program director for the new facility, said the foundation issued a call for proposals for the installation of a leadership-class computing system and facility in 2017. He said an outside committee led an internal merit review process to review each proposal.
“We made the selection based on the merits of the proposals submitted and UT was initially awarded the contract to install the Frontera (computer system), which is phase one of this leadership-class computing investment,” Walker said. “We recently announced a contract to begin the execution and construction of this leadership-class computing facility, which is actually phase two.”
Frontera was deployed in 2019 with the help of a $60 million grant from the foundation. Walker said the facility used the computer system during the COVID-19 pandemic to understand the mechanisms of viral spread. The computing center’s Frontera and Lone Star 6 were among six supercomputers selected for the foundation’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Resource Pilot.
Dan Stanzione, UT vice chancellor for research and executive director of the Computing Center, said the new facility is intended to continue this kind of research, including providing computing to use AI to confirm the presence of gravitational waves and to improve the speed and accuracy of hurricane forecasts. He said the new facility will be home to Horizon, a supercomputer that will be 10 times larger than Frontera and run 100 times faster.
“Big computers are special because they’re not that special,” Stanzione says. “If you buy a big microscope, astronomers don’t need microscopes. That’s for biologists and chemists. If you buy a big telescope, it’s for astronomers. If you buy a set of weather stations, it’s for climate science. If you buy a computer, it’s for everyone. So we’re like a big Swiss Army knife.”
The new facility is scheduled to begin operations in 2026. Stanzione said the center will operate until at least 2037, with an option to renew it in 2047.
“I think the important thing (for the center) is that it makes us sustainable in a lot of ways,” Stanzione said. “Being part of such a large facility and infrastructure means that you leave a trace. Computers come and go, but the large facility remains.”
