Cray T3D

The CRAY T3D system was the first in a series of massively parallel processing (MPP) systems from CRAY Research. T3D’s are tightly coupled to CRAY Y-MP and C90 systems through a high speed channel. PSC’s T3D prototype machine was tightly coupled to the center’s C90, creating a powerful heterogeneous environment.

Research

Modeling Global Climate: High Tide in Ocean Modeling

Rainer Bleck, University of Miami

Computations at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center are a notable step in the right direction in predicting climate changes.  Taking advantage of the parallel-processing ability of the CRAY T3D, Bleck and his collaborators, University of Minnesota computer engineers Matt O’Keefe and Aaron Sawdey, proved the feasibility of a revised approach to ocean modeling.  In a simulation that ran for 10 days on 256 T3D processors, half the machine, their model of circulation in the Atlantic Ocean correctly predicted the course of the Gulf Stream. No other circulation model of the entire Atlantic Ocean has done this. These results prove the feasibility of a revised approach to ocean modeling.
Read the full article: https://www.psc.edu/science/OKeefe/OKeefe.html

Weather Forecasting: Faster than a Speeding Storm Front

Kelvin Droegemeier, Oaklahoma University

In 1995, using the CRAY T3D at Pittsburgh, Droegemeier and his colleagues’ state-of-the-art computer model, the Advanced Regional Prediction System (ARPS), successfully predicted the location and structure of individual storms six hours in advance, the first time anywhere this had been accomplished.
Read the full article: https://www.psc.edu/science/Droegemeier/Droegemeier.html

Evolution and Structure of the Universe: New Light on Dark Matter

Jeremiah P. Ostriker Princeton University

Ostriker, along with scientists Guohong Xu and Renyue Cen, used PSC’s CRAY T3D to test competing theoretical models of cosmological origin, each of which offered a blueprint for the embryonic universe.  One of these, the so-called standard cold dark matter model, had been one of the most widely held theories. While calculations of the other three theories were still being analyzed, the Ostriker team’s work all but pulled the plug on the ailing standard cold dark matter model.
Read the full article: https://www.psc.edu/science/Ostriker/ostriker.html