Campus IT staff to supercomputers: Be cool

Purdue's supercomputer is among the most powerful commercial machines in the world.
Purdue's supercomputer is among the most powerful commercial machines in the world.

In Mike Shuey’s line of work, turning off a computer means losing up to 3 million processing hours—a few weeks of work, gone in an instant.

Until Shuey and his team of supercomputing experts at Purdue University found a way to cool down the massive machines when they overheated during the blazing summer months, there were only two options: “You turn on a few fans and hope for the best, or you turn off [the supercomputers] and wait until the temperature stabilizes,” he said.

Shutting down the machines would save the university’s expensive computers—but it could cost researchers weeks or months of work.…Read More

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