UCI to acquire 'super computer'

By Gary Robbins

August 5, 2003

The University of California, Irvine, is getting a $900,000 "super computer" that modelers in the Department of Earth System Science will use to study mankind's impact on the oceans, atmosphere and terrestrial ecosystems.

The computer "will be powerful enough to simulate about 50 years of evolution of the Earth's climate, ocean, sea ice and vegetation per week," said Charles Zender, the UCI atmospheric chemist leading the project.

The National Science Foundation is paying about $770,000 of the cost. UCI is paying for the rest.

The system will be the most powerful computer on campus when it begins operating in December.