One of the world’s 20 largest supercomputers was delivered to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineering Research and Development Center on Tuesday and it should be assembled within a month, said Greg Rottman, assistant director of ERDC’s Department of Defense Supercomputer Resource Center.

“It would take 10,000 scientists doing calculations nonstop for 900 years to do what this computer can do in one second,” Rottman told Port City Kiwanis Thursday morning as guest speaker. 

The new computer, which was built in Chippewa Falls, Wis., by Silicon Graphics Inc., will be the largest of ERDC’s three supercomputers, said Rottman. It will be used by the center’s staff of 65 to conduct a wide variety of Department of Defense work to support and enhance the country’s military and defense technologies. 

“Our basic mission is to support the war fighter,” Rottman said. “To give you just one example of the kinds of things we do: there’s a jet that’s been retrofitted with a laser that is calibrated to intercept missiles in the air … that laser has to be extremely strong to shoot through the atmosphere, and it takes millions of calculations to perfect that technology. We can do those calculations.” 

The supercomputer cost approximately $15 million, has twice the storage capacity of ERDC’s next largest — enough to hold 850 million songs if it were an iPod — and requires 33 percent less energy to power it. 

“It generates so much heat that if they don’t get cooled for even five minutes they’ll get burned and will be partially destroyed,” Rottman said.

Keeping the massive computer cool requires having about 110 tons of chilled water on hand. The average home has about 3 tons of water available, Rottman offered as a comparison. 

To accommodate the new supercomputer, Rottman said ERDC is building a 10,000-square-foot room. He said there are additional plans to expand the facility where the supercomputers are housed off Porter’s Chapel Road, which includes the construction of 100 additional office spaces, mini labs and meeting rooms. 

“We change faster than most people change their underwear,” said Rottman, “and things have gone even a little faster in the past three years.”

The supercomputer resource center is just one wing of ERDC’s operations in Vicksburg. With an annual payroll of about $77.3 million, ERDC is one of Vicksburg’s largest employers. Approximately 1,663 people are employed by ERDC — 1,177 federal, about 400 contractors and the rest students and temporary staff.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com