Call For Proposals For Project Columbia High-end Computing Resources

Release Date: 10 December 2004
Submission Deadline: 14 January 2005

Dear Colleague:

NASA's Science Mission Directorate (SMD) solicits proposals for using the
recently installed Project Columbia supercomputer system to support
currently funded research investigations in Earth and space science. Only
investigators who are currently funded by SMD are eligible to apply, and
proposals must address research investigations that have been selected
through peer review process for support by SMD. Selected proposals will
receive allocations of computing resources for the calendar year 2005 and
will be eligible to receive technical support on the Columbia supercomputer
system. No direct funding will be provided through this allocation
process. Future allocation opportunities will be announced at
approximately six-month intervals.

Project Columbia is an integrated system of twenty 512-processor SGI Altix
systems and a 440-terabyte SGI InfiniteStorage solution to create the
world's largest Linux OS-based supercomputer. Powered by a total of 10,240
Intel Itanium 2 processors, Project Columbia is equipping NASA sponsored
scientists with one of the most sophisticated and capable supercomputers in
the world. The unique shared memory architecture of the SGI Altix system
allows each one of the 512-processor clusters to share a single system
image. Information on the current Project Columbia supercomputer,
including the architecture, can be found at
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Resources/Systems/columbia.html.

In allocating its portion of Project Columbia's resources, SMD will give
priority to problems that are not easily accommodated by commodity Linux
clusters and that take advantage of the shared memory architecture and
other unique capabilities of Project Columbia. Proposals will be assessed
for technical requirements (e.g., amount of computing resources requested,
necessity and appropriateness for Columbia class system, etc.), as well as
for programmatic priorities by a panel of NASA program managers and
discipline scientists, along with other invited experts. Final decisions
regarding allocations will be made by the Deputy Associate Administrator of
the NASA Science Mission Directorate and will be announced in February 2005.

Instructions for the on-line proposal submission process can be found at
http://www.nas.nasa.gov/Users/Accounts/pi_science.html. A proposal cover
sheet, abstract, number of processor hours requested, and technical
proposal (3 page limit), are required. No hard copy submission will be
accepted.

Any questions should be directed to Mr. Joe Bredekamp (202-358-2348;
joe.bredekamp@...) or Dr. Tsengdar Lee (202-358-0860;
tsengdar.j.lee@...) at NASA Headquarters. Your interest in
participating in this opportunity is appreciated.