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- Posted Tuesday March 26, 2013
TGen establishes secure link to 2nd supercomputer <br >with 'Obsidian LongbowTM' technology
Obsidian Strategics provides military-grade encryption capability with no loss of performance
PHOENIX, Ariz. - March 26, 2013 - The
Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is testing a
secure connection to its second supercomputer using Obsidian
Strategics' Longbow technology, which features National Security
Administration (NSA) approved hardware-based encryption and
authentication.
TGen's new 19-teraflop supercomputer (19 trillion operations per
second), located at Phoenix NAP, positions the non-profit institute
to conduct future data-rich research, such as its current projects
involving Dell Pediatrics Oncology, Stand Up to Cancer, Multiple
Myeloma Research Foundation and TGen's new Center for Rare
Childhood Disorders.
The Obsidian E100 Longbow connection is rated at 10 gigabits per
second, and is similar to an Obsidian connection established
previously between TGen's downtown Phoenix headquarters and Arizona
State University's Saguaro II supercomputer (rated at 50 trillion
operations per second).
"We are building for the future the type of state-of-the-art
digital infrastructure needed to securely handle the tremendous
amount of data needed when sequencing, multiple times, the nearly 3
billion letters of DNA code for each patient we see," said James
Lowey, TGen Vice President of Technology. "This technology speeds
new information to physicians, so they can provide the best
treatments for their patients, potentially saving lives and
improving their quality of life."
Genomic sequencing enables TGen scientists to spell out each
patient's genetic code and identify genes and cellular processes
that may be at the root cause of diseases such as Alzheimer's,
diabetes and many types of cancer.
"Genomic data sets require large amounts of bandwidth. Because of
our highly successful track history with Obsidian Strategics, we
knew their technology solutions would enable data transfers with
our new supercomputer to happen quickly and efficiently," Lowey
said.
Obsidian Longbows enables an InfiniBand-based parallel file system
to be rapidly shared between High Performance Computing facilities.
Testing of TGen's new supercomputer link began in January and is
expected to continue through May.
Obsidian Chief Visionary Officer Dr. David Southwell explains how
Longbows fit into the infrastructure: "TGen's powerful computers
and storage systems are bound together using very high-performance,
but distance limited, network links. Longbows seamlessly
range-extend these links over standard optic fibers, delivering
stretched supercomputer performance at great distance, protected by
high-grade security."
Obsidian's newly appointed President of U.S. operations, Walt
Wright, Col. USAF (Ret.), commented: "We are honored to be part of
this ongoing collaboration to support the TGen mission. As
Longbows were originally a defense network and intelligence-based
technology that continues to emerge in various industries, it's
especially gratifying to me to see a true Big-Science success story
right here in the Valley, our new home for distribution and
operations."
Nelson Kick, TGen's Senior High Performance Computing Engineer,
said Obsidian technology achieves 98 percent of theoretical
available bandwidth even when the integrated state-of-the-art
cryptography hardware is enabled.
"Even using encryption, we can move nearly 10 gigabits per second
over the Longbow connection," Kick said. "That is essentially the
same rate as unencrypted data, meaning that added security has no
impact on performance."
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About Obsidian Strategics
Obsidian Strategics™ is the developer of Longbow™, a series of
InfiniBand products featuring range extension, routing and
encryption. Longbow technology allows an InfiniBand fabric,
normally a short-range network used in high-performance computing,
to be extended via optical fiber over varying distances. Longbow
connects across Campus, Metro or Global networks to enable
unparalleled real-time backup over long-distance, high-bandwidth
video transmission and efficient movement of large data sets to
compute and storage resources. www.obsidianstrategics.com.
Press Contact:
Dr. David Southwell
Chief Visionary Officer
780-964-3283
[email protected]
*
About TGen
The Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) is a Phoenix,
Arizona-based non-profit organization dedicated to conducting
groundbreaking research with life changing results. Research at
TGen is focused on helping patients with diseases such as cancer,
neurological disorders and diabetes. TGen is on the cutting edge of
translational research where investigators are able to unravel the
genetic components of common and complex diseases. Working with
collaborators in the scientific and medical communities, TGen
believes it can make a substantial contribution to the efficiency
and effectiveness of the translational process. For more
information, visit: www.tgen.org.
Press Contact:
Steve Yozwiak
TGen Senior Science Writer
602-343-8704
[email protected]
