Come explore TACC’s computer machine rooms, visualization laboratories, and other facilities that support our supercomputers. Discover the benefits of advanced computing in your everyday life!

Did you know that people with careers related to science, materials and automobile manufacturing, weather forecasting, and emergency response (just to name a few) use advanced computing technologies to solve problems that affect our lives every day.

• Forecasters predict the weather using advanced computing technologies.
• Your car was probably designed and crashed tested in a supercomputer simulation.
• Models generated with advanced computing help plan emergency response to flooding.
• Moviemakers create dazzling special effects and even entire movies on supercomputers. Ratatouille and Shrek are good examples.
• Proctor & Gamble used supercomputers to simulate airflow over Pringles potato chips. After some adjustments, the chips speed along on conveyor belts instead of flying away, and rapidly stack inside the cans—unbroken!

TACC’s supercomputers are in large rooms about the size of a house. Just like your desktop or laptop computer generates lots of heat and needs to be cooled, so do Ranger, Lonestar, Champion and Maverick, but on a much larger scale. There is more inside the machine room than meets the eye. For example, our supercomputers can store terabytes of data on an array of hard disks. For long-term storage, however, data are transferred from hard disk to tape.

On the tour, you will learn about all of this and more, including the four primary elements of a supercomputer cluster like Ranger. These elements are fast processing, vast amounts of memory, lots of disk space, and quick interconnects and input/output.

TACC’s Visualization Laboratories

Colorful, computer generated weather maps on TV are examples of visualization. An animated map shows you actual storms, then predicts what will probably happen minutes, hours, or days in the future. In just a few seconds, you can make an important decision that could save your life.

Visualizations generated by supercomputers can immerse you in data, visually. You can naturally explore your visualization to discover important relationships among the different kinds of data displayed. Come tour one or more of our visualization laboratories -- try it yourself!  TACC has produced astounding visualizations with researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and around the world.

Tours can be one to 2.5 hours long, depending on the size of the group, which facilities you wish to tour, and what presentations you wish to see.

We can comfortably accommodate groups of 25 or less. Larger groups (up 50 maximum) require additional preparation and planning.

Please schedule your tour 4 weeks in advance. Contact Faith Singer-Villalobos, TACC’s Public Relations Coordinator, and provide the following information:

1. Name and contact information of the group’s leader/organizer.
2. Name of group, school, or organization.
3. Number, and age range or grade level, of those in the group.
4. Purpose of your group’s visit. We will use this information to fit the tour to your interests and needs. Teachers: include your current TEKS!
5. Preferred dates and times for your tour.

Faith Singer-Villalobos
Public Relations Coordinator
Texas Advanced Computing Center
The University of Texas at Austin
faith@tacc.utexas.edu
512-232-5771