Cedars-Sinai, one of the largest academic medical centers in the US, expects to more than quadruple its previous data processing capacity using the Sun high-performance computing grid, while also decreasing cost and power consumption.
The medical center is using a Sun Grid Rack system comprised of 400 Sun Fire x64 servers, Sun StorageTek solutions, Sun N1 software and pre-integrated by Sun Customer Ready Systems.
The system will help researchers conducting highly complex analyses of the proteins in patient blood samples in order to discover and develop treatments – for cancer, heart disease, epilepsy, high cholesterol and other diseases – that are based on an individual’s biochemical make-up and medical history.
Cedars-Sinai chose Sun as the best option for its processing, storage and backup requirements. The 400 Sun servers form a supercomputer in a compact footprint that performs huge volumes of statistical and data analysis. The system is aiming to generate four terabytes of data daily by 2007 – four times what was previously processed by the grid – and eight terabytes daily by 2008.
The processing power enables researchers to analyze complex data sets in days rather than weeks or months and cross-compare data to uncover new disease connections.
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