• PSC
• Services

Corporate Affiliates Program

The Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center provides its corporate partners the expertise and services to enhance and support their corporate technical computing capabilities and to exploit high performance computing technologies. With over two decades of experience in both operating an integrated high performance computing facility and in developing applications of this technology to solve critical research, engineering, and business problems, PSC can put the expertise as well as the high performance computing and communications facilities themselves to work for you. Because of the wide array of products and services we offer, our programs are customized to meet the particular needs of our partners.

We can extend to you our capabilities in HPCC, including

• products,
• services,
• assistance in formulating corporate IT strategy,
• the development of modeling and simulations, and
• collaboration in R&D and the application of new technologies.

We also provide HPCC systems for your use, and technical expertise to help your company achieve its goals.

Capabilities

• PSC can provide an integrated array of high performance computing and communications (HPCC) products and related services, including:

  Products

  • Computing cycles on the Cray XT3, an HP shared multiprocessor (SMP) system and an HP Alphaserver cluster
  • Mass Storage systems
  • Network access

  Services. Training and consulting in a number of areas, such as:

  • Network Engineering
  • Use of HPCC systems
  • Parallel Programming and Applications
  • Other topics customized to meet user needs

• PSC can assist in formulating and implementing Corporate IT strategy to support and enhance engineering, research and other technical functions. Specific capabilities include:

  • Cost-effective solutions such as clusters of workstations
  • Matching application requirements to hardware and network solutions
  • Large-scale data management issues
  • High-performance network architectures

• PSC can provide expertise in the development, implementation and execution of fundamental and applied models and simulations, such as:

  • Increasing speed of execution through parallelization, code enhancement, etc.
  • Re-deployment of existing models to further their usefulness or applicability
  • Collaborative research or model development in specific application areas, e.g., biomedicine, materials science, etc.

• PSC can work collaboratively with your organization in the research, development and/or application of new technology. Areas of particular interest and expertise include:

  • Datamining
  • Content-based image retrieval
  • Visualization of complex phenomena
    • Interactive steering
    • 3-D immersive display
  • Protein Sequencing
  • Bioinformatics
  • Structural Biology
  • Parallel and distributed computing
  • Network engineering
  • Network performance diagnostics

Using PSC Systems

Users can choose among the following systems to support their processing needs:

• a Cray XT3, bigben.psc.edu,
• an HP SMP system, rachel.psc.edu, and
• a Compaq Alphaserver cluster, ben.psc.edu

We measure processing time in Service Units. A Service Unit provides approximately one hour of processing. The Service Unit rate for each machine will vary depending on the amount of technical support and the number of units required. For specific rate information, contact the Corporate Relations Office at corp-relations@psc.edu.

Special applications which require the use of our mass storage systems or high performance network can be accommodated.

Technical Expertise

Besides providing computational resources, PSC can also provide highly skilled technical resources to work with your company in the following ways:

• custom training tailored to the partner's needs
• generalized training and workshops on appropriate topics
• scientific practitioners to collaborate or consult with your scientists and engineers
• systems practitioners (hardware, systems software, applications software and networking) who can help you take fullest advantage of the PSC technology resources or your own HPC resources.

Our mission is to enable companies to use high-performance computing to solve difficult problems and gain a competitive advantage. We work with organizations of all sizes to create programs appropriate to their goals and budget.

For further information, please contact the Corporate Relations Office, Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, (412) 268-4960 or by e-mail, corp-relations@psc.edu.