About CPCM

The Center for Physical and Computational Mathematics, a member of the Institute for Physical Research and Technology at Iowa State University, develops high-performance computing methods and hardware and conducts research in the physical, mathematical and engineering disciplines.

CPCM draws on the researchers and staff of the U.S. Department of Energy's Ames Laboratory Scalable Computing Laboratory. These individuals initiate and support projects with ISU faculty and students across disciplines ranging from mathematics and physics to engineering and chemistry.

A number of students also serve CPCM, conducting research and operating systems such as the Ames Laboratory Iowa State University Cluster Environment, known as ALICE.

Researchers with ALICE nodes

What CPCM Does

CPCM conducts research in cluster computing and trains individuals in code parallelization.  Once optimized, codes can be submitted to run on local clusters or off-site supercomputers containing thousands of similar processors.  PC-cluster computers allow high-performance computing at low cost by dividing the problem among multiple PC processors.  This leaves supercomputers to tackle "grand challenge" problems, such as global climate modeling.

Computer simulations have grown in capacity and importance. In engineering, computer modeling for designing and processing is essential, while in the sciences, it is becoming a means to new knowledge. Forefront research demanding supercomputer resources has turned to massively parallel computers, where hundreds or thousands of fast computer processors are coupled to deliver unprecedented computational power. Research at CPCM is uncovering novel ways to couple the processors with fast communications and developing computer codes that can run simultaneously and efficiently on all the processors.

CPCM also has 256-node Intel Paragon system, one of the world's fastest computers when new and still a powerful supercomputer. It is used by scientists to study photonics, structural configurations of biological molecules and semiconductors surfaces.

Who We Serve

CPCM supports a variety of colleges and departments at ISU, ranging from materials science and engineering to zoology and genetics. For instance, CPCM helped a member of the agronomy department parallelize and vastly accelerate climate-modeling codes. CPCM and a faculty member in zoology and genetics collaborated to construct a PC cluster designed for parallel database mining. Named Octopus, the cluster will be used to analyze genome data from recent plant genome initiatives.  The center also enhances the education of ISU students by providing opportunities for hands-on experience in high-performance computing research.

To provide the best support to ISU, CPCM works with other groups and companies, such as equipment manufacturers. For example, ALICE, a 128-processor cluster, was built in partnership with ISU, CPCM and the Scalable Computing Laboratory and has been used to test sophisticated switches from various high-tech industries. ALICE is used in code benchmarking, communication research and production.

Another partnership has been formed with IBM and the U.S. Department of Energy. This pairing of state-of-the-art computers with advanced technology focuses on using intercomputer communications to make further gains in parallel computing speeds.