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posted on Nov. 16: Super computers keep astrophysicist plugged into cosmos

Astrophysicist Hugh Couchman likes to look deep into the cosmos. Powerful computers help him explore galaxies millions of light years away. Now he will have even more power behind his research when SHARCNET links his 112 Alpha computer processors at McMaster with 285 computer processors from other universities across southern Ontario. "SHARCNET, an acronym for Shared Hierarchical Academic Research Computer Network, is a distributed network with a hierarchy of clustering," says Couchman. Working in parallel, university computers at McMaster, Western, Guelph and Wilfrid Laurier and computers at Fanshawe and Sheridan colleges, will give researchers the opportunity to perform high-speed calculations. Representatives from McMaster and the participating universities and colleges, government, industry and SHARCNET are celebrating the official launch of the new super computer network today in London. Click on SHARCNET fact sheet for more information about the project. Couchman is trying to understand how galaxies formed billions of years ago. He uses computers to simulate galaxies in a cosmic three-dimensional environment. "I use numerical computations to provide a bridge between the cosmic theorist and the observer who uses a telescope," says Couchman. "I simulate a physical system on the computer and then perform experiments on the system. Numerical simulation allows us to experiment with the universe." Super astrophysicist: Numerical computations and super computer processors connect McMaster astrophysicist Hugh Couchman to galaxies millions of miles away. Photo by Ron Scheffler