 "Photo: Adam Templeton")
It's something straight from an old spy movie.
After taking a nondescript elevator to the basement and having a staff member swipe an ID badge to open a locked door, visitors get a glimpse of the climate-controlled, state-of-the-art room that now houses all of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's supercomputers.
The five UNL supercomputers were recently consolidated into the Schorr Center, which is located in the former athletic department offices in the south end of Memorial Stadium. The center was re-opened to the public last week.
The move has already been beneficial, said David Swanson, the director of UNL's Research Computing Facility.
"If we need to do something hands on, we're right there," Swanson said. He said after a hardware failure on the PrairieFire system, all the files were able to be cross-referenced from a second supercomputer called Merritt.
The three other machines - Red, Homestead and Bugeater - are also housed in the new facility. Prior to the move, UNL's supercomputers were scattered all over the campus, with machines aiding researchers at Avery Hall, the Walter Scott Engineering Center and the Nelnet Building at the corner of 13th and O streets.
The computers were moved from their various locations by members of the computing facility and employees of the local moving company Von Rentzell.
RCF employees had to disassemble all the computers before they could be moved. The task involved untangling cords and taking equipment off their racks.
"Ours racks were big and tall and ugly, so we had to take them all apart," said Garhan Attebury, a system administrator for the center.
Attebury said he also tried to move two of the racks in the back of his pickup truck.
"It was a disaster," Attebury said, laughing. "It was not worth the effort it took."
All the systems were eventually transported to the Schorr Center and rebuilt from the ground up.
"This is where the computers were always destined to be," said Tom Harvill, another system administrator for the center.
The energy expended to prevent the machines from overheating would cool twenty houses, Swanson said.
Water radiators on both ends of the room take in chilled water and blow cold air underneath the floor. The floor is full of holes and is placed 18 inches off the ground. This allows cool currents to drift into the room. Hot air meets in the back of the room, and holes in the ceiling suck the air out.
Swanson demonstrated the air flow by letting go of a dollar bill, which a vent in the ceiling immediately sucked up.
"I'm cheap," he said, smiling. He then jumped to grab the dollar back.
The supercomputers are used for a variety of research, including simulating metal stress or climate modeling.
Red is used primary for physics research.
The computer was named for quarks, which are colored subatomic particles.
"Obviously, in Nebraska, we picked the color red," Swanson said. "It may not have been the best name. In computers, red generally means something has failed."
adamtempleton@dailynebraskan.com
