A UAE company has been recognized for operating one of the fastest supercomputer systems in the world and the fastest in the SAMENA region. The Top500 report lists the sites that have the 500 most powerful computer systems installed. CERT, the Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training in the United Arab Emirates was recognized in the most recent release yesterday.

CERT is ranking 140th, placing it in the company of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the United States, and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Centre. The TOP500 list has been updated twice a year since June 1993.

In a move to position CERT alongside the world leaders in Super Computing, CERT’s Chairman His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research authorized the delivery of IBM’s Blue Gene supercomputer at CERT Centre, Abu Dhabi in September of this year. CERT has begun the establishment of centres for Targeted Oncology and Minimal Invasive Therapy in the UAE and is now working towards a leadership position in healthcare. Blue Gene offers computing power to enable research in data-intensive disciplines such as these. Real time MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging), for example, requires vast computing power. The CERT Blue Gene’s power of 5.7 teraflops is the equivalent of 5.7 trillion mathematical operations per second. CERT is able to provide rapid computation of oil field data and provide 3D visualization of oil reserves and new fields of exploration.

Clients with constrained budgets and specialized requirements can gain access to the Blue Gene system by paying only for the amount of capacity reserved. In this way, clients contract for variable power and services to meet short term needs as well as planned or unplanned peak workloads. Accessing the Blue Gene through the Centre for Supercomputing helps clients quickly tap Blue Gene power while helping to reduce financial and technical risk.

The Blue Gene is a foundation stone of a new National Research Centre being developed by CERT to be deployed at CERT Innovation City.