Access to supercomputer aids in studies

The state’s supercomputer, known as “Encanto,” is available to higher education institutions – including New Mexico State University – via high-speed data Internet connections and the New Mexico Computing Applications Center (NMCAC) project.

Encanto is powered by Intel Xeon processor cores and boasts the same amount of memory found on 28,000 office computers. It was ranked the third fastest in the world in 2007.

The supercomputer was unveiled at the Intel Corp. in Rio Rancho, N.M., in February 2008 and calibrated and ready for use by summer 2008.

Campus and laboratory researchers statewide who specified an interest and had accounts set up through the service are able to log in with a provided user name to access the supercomputer from nearly any computer with Internet access.

As part of the Encanto project, access to the system was given to New Mexico’s three Ph.D. granting universities to serve as gateways. Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories also have signed on as partners.

“It’s a great resource. It has really given a boost to my research and to others’ research. The state has done a great service to the research and the development community in New Mexico,” said Michael Engelhardt, assistant professor of physics at NMSU.

Spanish for “enchanted,” the Encanto was built through a $14 million appropriation from the 2007 Legislature. The state’s goal for the supercomputer is to use it as a catalyst to encourage high school and college students to enter into science careers and as a tool for economic development.