Joint Bureau of Meteorology/CSIRO High Performance Computing and Communications Centre.
24 July 1997
The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO have agreed to establish a joint High Performance Computing and Communications Centre (HPCCC). The Director of Meteorology, Dr John Zillman, signed a formal agreement establishing the Centre on 22 July 1997 with the Chief Executive of CSIRO, Dr Malcolm McIntosh.
The HPCCC will provide facilities for advanced computation, interactive modelling and visualisation, large volume data archiving and highspeed communications access, supported by a core group of staff with expertise in high performance computing and its applications.
It will be located at the Bureau's Head Office at 150 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne. The major computer facility will be a new supercomputer which was specified jointly by the Bureau and CSIRO in a Request For Tender issued to industry in December 1996. The tenders received from industry were evaluated jointly and a contract with the successful vendor, NEC Australia Pty Ltd,for an SX-4 computer costing $18 million, was signed on 23 July 1997.
The launching of the HPCCC and its associated computing and communications capacity represents a major technical advance for the Bureau. Computing performance, for example, will rise significantly and enable the Bureau to substantially upgrade the quality of forecast guidance prepared by the National Meteorological Operations Centre. At the same time, new opportunities for research collaboration will be introduced involving not only Bureau and CSIRO scientists but also the considerable and diverse research resources of NEC.
The strategic management of the HPCC will be guided by a joint Bureau-CSIRO Management Committee which will be chaired for the first year of its operation by Dr D J Gauntlett (Deputy Director (Research & Systems)of the Bureau of Meteorology).
The inaugural HPCCC Manager will be Mr Steve Munro (Bureau of Meteorology) and the Deputy Manager will be Dr Robert Bell of the CSIRO. The HPCCC Support Group will be staffed jointly by the Bureau and CSIRO from within existing resources. This joint Support Group, together with staff from NEC, will be located on the 24th floor at 150 Lonsdale Street.
The supercomputer will be delivered to the Bureau Head Office site during August, and together with the HPCCC, will be formally commissioned later in 1997.
Objectives of the High Performance Computing and Communications Centre
(a) To provide the prime High Performance Computing and Communications (HPCC) resource for the operational and research needs of the Bureau of Meteorology, and a major HPCC resource for the scientific and industrial research needs of CSIRO.
(b) To provide a national data archiving facility for large spatiotemporal data sets in meteorological, oceanographic and environmental sciences, to complement other earth observation data reception and distribution centres. The need to meet these access requirements has been recently highlighted in separate reviews of the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO.
(c) To collaborate with other HPCC centres in government, industry and universities, and to build on existing expertise at the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, relevant CRCs and universities.
(d) To support Australia's commitment to the international programs of the United Nations and its agencies (WMO, IOC, UNEP, etc.), and Australia's contribution to major international activities such as the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the Montreal Protocol and the Commission on Sustainable Development.
(e) To support the Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO in their provision of services to other public and private sector organisations.