| BP
Deploys HP Intel Itanium® 2-based systems for seismic imaging
research
Posted: 21 April 2003
Intel Itanium 2-based solution running Linux delivers significant
benefits for oil and gas exploration
DUBAI — Intel Corporation and HP announced
that BP, one of the world's largest petroleum and petrochemicals
companies, has added new and additional computing capabilities to
its advanced seismic research facility.
The research facility will benefit from the addition of HP Intel
Itanium 2-based systems running Linux, resulting in dramatically
faster seismic imaging.
Based in Houston, BP's advanced seismic research center now includes
a high-performance computing (HPC) cluster of 259 HP rx5670 systems
with more than 1,000 Itanium 2 processors, providing a total of
4 teraflops and 8000 GB of memory, running under the Linux operating
system.
The HP Server rx5670 is part of HP's broad portfolio of industry-standard
Itanium-based hardware for enterprise customers. Using HP's Itanium
2-based systems running Linux as well as Intel and HP software,
compilers and tools, BP has achieved a significant increase in computing
power, resulting in clearer images of the Earth's subsurface structures
and the hydrocarbons they contain.
"To achieve the most cost-effective and productive drilling
procedure, we have to gather massive sets of seismic data and analyze
them quickly and accurately," said Keith Gray, manager of BP's
HPC center. "The combination of HP Itanium 2-based servers
running Linux and software tools and services from Intel and HP
gives us the power to produce better-defined results in a fraction
of the time."
"The BP seismic solution illustrates the growing momentum
for Itanium 2-based systems in heavy-duty enterprise computing,"
said John Davies, vice president, Sales and Marketing Group and
director, Intel's Solutions Market Development Group. "By using
Itanium 2-based systems to run one of the most powerful commercial
computing centers in the world, BP is able to take advantage of
the world-class reliability, scalability and power provided by the
Itanium 2 processor."
"Itanium 2-based solutions are increasingly becoming the platform
of choice for highly demanding applications in the technical and
commercial marketplaces as they save customers valuable time and
money," said Mark Hudson, vice president of Marketing for HP's
Business Critical Systems. "By deploying Itanium 2-based HP
systems running Linux, BP is able to assess and manage the search
for hydrocarbons more efficiently, while also reducing the risk
inherent in exploration and development."
Moore's Law — conceived by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore
in 1968 — has pushed the performance of Intel-based computing
platforms to the forefront of scientific and business innovation,
helping to slash computing costs and expand high performance computing
beyond the confines of proprietary supercomputers to a more mainstream
production environment.
Intel-based solutions are rapidly becoming the platform of choice
because of their outstanding price/performance and scalability,
support for open-source development, and extended, multi-vendor
environment.
The Intel Itanium 2 processor is the second in the Itanium processor
family, a line of enterprise-class processors from Intel that brings
the performance and volume economics of Intel architecture to the
most data-intensive business-critical and technical computing applications.
The Itanium processor family enables a broad choice of reliable
platforms and software for high-end servers and workstations at
significantly lower cost with better performance than many proprietary
offerings.
About HP
HP is a leading global provider of products, technologies,
solutions and services to consumers and businesses. The company's
offerings span IT infrastructure, personal computing and access
devices, global services and imaging and printing. HP completed
its acquisition of Compaq Computer Corporation on May 3, 2002.
More information about HP is available at www.hp.com.
About Intel
Intel, the world's largest chip maker, is also a leading
manufacturer of computer, networking and communications products.
Additional information about Intel is available at www.intel.com.
Posted by Richard Price,
Editor Pipeline Magazine
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