Supercomputer facility moves on with full design
By Bill McCarthy
bmccarthy@wyomingnews.com
CHEYENNE -- Experts for the National Science Foundation gave the green light to creating a complete design for a supercomputing center here.
The NCAR-Wyoming Supercomputing Center passed the NSF Preliminary Design Review conducted by a panel of experts.
Marijke Unger is the external relations specialist for the National Center for Atmospheric Research's Computational and Information Systems Laboratory in Boulder, Colo. She said that NCAR received word of the NSF panel's decision late Tuesday and notified NCAR employees on Wednesday.
The review materials consisted of 65 percent of the design.
The panel recommended that NCAR and its Wyoming partners proceed to 100 percent of the design.
The facility will provide high-performance scientific computing in atmospheric and related geosciences.
"We've been very confident that would be the outcome" of the panel's review, said Randy Bruns, chief executive at Cheyenne LEADS, the economic development corporation for Cheyenne and Laramie County. "But it's always a relief when you pass another one of these process points."
Cheyenne LEADS is providing the ground in the North Range Business Park northwest of the intersection of Interstates 80 and 25 for development of the supercomputer facility.
The approval keeps the project on schedule for construction to begin in the spring and the facility to open in 2011.
University of Wyoming trustees agreed in October to put up $750,000 for the final design.
The money will come from the university operating budget, and trustees expect the state Legislature will restore the money during this winter's budget session.
The 24-acre, 100,000-square-foot facility will provide 20 to 30 new jobs, plus incentive for other economic development projects.
The completed project with federal-government-owned computing equipment is expected to cost more than $500 million.
The total construction cost is expected to be $60 million to $70 million.
The center is a partnership between NCAR, the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, the University of Wyoming, the state of Wyoming, Cheyenne LEADS, Laramie County, the Wyoming Business Council and Cheyenne Light, Fuel and Power.
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