Osaka Campus

The computer simulates atomic motion and analyzes the interactions between proteins and drug molecules.

（Top image）The whole system is comprised of 64 circuit boards connected together, with eight newly developed LSIs installed on each circuit board. The computer is capable of calculating 1.3 petaflops of data (1.3 quadrillion calculations per second).

 

上から見たMDGRAPE-4A
▲ MDGRAPE is a special-purpose supercomputer for calculating molecular dynamics, and is based on GRAPE (GRAvity PipE), a computer built for astrophysical calculations of gravitational N-body systems. The current system is the fifth version.

 

MDGRAPE-4Aの裏側
▲ Sitting behind the computer system are numerous fans required to keep the system cooled. Scientists working inside the room need to wear soundproof earmuffs to protect their ears from the deafening noise of the fans.