Overview

The Orion supercomputer is the main compute resource for the National Computing Facility for Lattice Gauge Theory (NCFLGT), a collaboration between physicists at the University of Adelaide, the University of Melbourne and the University of New South Wales. Some time is made available for non-Lattice Gauge Theory users in exchange for SAPAC managing the cluster.

The NCFLGT was funded by the Australian Research Council's Research Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities Scheme (RIEF), matching funds from the partner universities, and a generous grant from Sun Microsystems.

Orion is primarily used for numerical simulations of lattice gauge theories such as lattice Quantum ChromoDynamics (QCD), which aim to advance understanding of the fundamental forces of nature. These simulations are extremely computationally intensive.

Orion has a peak performance of 144 GFlops and was the fastest computer in Australia when it was installed in June 2000. It was ranked 188th in the November 2000 list of the top 500 fastest supercomputers in the world, with a measured Linpack benchmark result of 110 GFlops.

Orion is located at the University of Adelaide and managed by a cooperative arrangement between the CSSM and the SAPAC.

Orion User's Guide