2 Universities Deploy High-Density Rack Servers for Research Computing

Two American universities have installed Dell servers to do research requiring high performance computing (HPC). Both will be using the Dell PowerEdge C6100, high-density rack server with low energy requirements.

The University of Colorado at Boulder will use the new setup for research in earth‐system science, biotechnology, and renewable energy areas. The University of Kentucky in Lexington will be performing research on the new equipment to study the impact of alcoholism on the brain and possible connections with diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases.

The PowerEdge C6100 is a high-density rack server with low energy requirements. It runs Intel Xeon 5600 processors running Novell or Red Hat Linux and can accommodate up to 96 GB of memory. Each node in the unit can be serviced separately from the others.

"Our researchers need HPC systems that are powerful, and the university demands systems that are affordable, as well as space and power efficient," said Henry Tufo, an associate professor of computer science and faculty director of research computing at U Colorado Boulder.

"We chose to work with Dell based on their legacy in working with academia across the globe in HPC and our interest in exploring new uses of HPC computing analysis in language arts and sciences," said Vince Kellen, CIO at U Kentucky. "Dell's platforms complement our vision to become a "top 20" public research university by 2020. Their cloud-ready servers also support our aim to experiment with HPC in the cloud over the next several years."

About the Author

Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.

Featured

  • two large brackets facing each other with various arrows, circles, and rectangles flowing between them

    1EdTech Partners with DXtera to Support Ed Tech Interoperability

    1EdTech Consortium and DXtera Institute have announced a partnership aimed at improving access to learning data in postsecondary and higher education.

  • Abstract geometric shapes including hexagons, circles, and triangles in blue, silver, and white

    Google Launches Its Most Advanced AI Model Yet

    Google has introduced Gemini 2.5 Pro Experimental, a new artificial intelligence model designed to reason through problems before delivering answers, a shift that marks a major leap in AI capability, according to the company.

  •  laptop on a clean desk with digital padlock icon on the screen

    Study: Data Privacy a Top Concern as Orgs Scale Up AI Agents

    As organizations race to integrate AI agents into their cloud operations and business workflows, they face a crucial reality: while enthusiasm is high, major adoption barriers remain, according to a new Cloudera report. Chief among them is the challenge of safeguarding sensitive data.

  • stylized AI code and a neural network symbol, paired with glitching code and a red warning triangle

    New Anthropic AI Models Demonstrate Coding Prowess, Behavior Risks

    Anthropic has released Claude Opus 4 and Claude Sonnet 4, its most advanced artificial intelligence models to date, boasting a significant leap in autonomous coding capabilities while simultaneously revealing troubling tendencies toward self-preservation that include attempted blackmail.