A corporate partnership will garner millions of dollars in high-performance computer equipment for Iowa State.

The High Performance Computing Group at Iowa State has entered into an agreement with Cray Inc., a supercomputer developer, to test software for Cray’s new X1 computer system.

In payment for the group’s testing, Cray will donate computer equipment to the group.

Cray, which calls itself the “global market leader in high-end supercomputers,” was founded in 1972 and focuses on developing high-end supercomputers.

The X1 will be released later this year.

“Supercomputers are just the fastest class of computers at any given time,” said Steve Conway, spokesman for Cray. “The X1 is the world’s fastest computer.”

Glenn Luecke, director of the ISU High Performance Computing Group, said his group has had contracts with Cray for the past 10 years.

“My group works here at ISU and will remotely log onto Cray X1 machines located outside of Iowa,” said Luecke, professor of mathematics.

Cray Inc.’s customers include many automotive, aerospace, petroleum and chemical/pharmaceutical companies, weather forecasting and global climate research centers, major academic research centers and government agencies in the United States. and abroad, according to its Web site, www.cray.com.

Some of the software tested at Iowa State will be “used by the intelligence community in the United States and friendly nations for all types of processes, including digital signal processing and cryptography,” Conway said. “They will also be used for a variety of unclassified government work. The U.S. Army has bought two [X1 computers], and they will be used to develop defenses against bioterrorism.”

Other software includes full-fidelity crash-testing, which gauges the true impact of an automobile accident on soft tissue, he said.

Conway said that no specific time frame has been set for testing, but Luecke said that his current contract with Cray ends in December 2003.

Conway said Cray chose the ISU High Performance Computing Group for the testing because they have a “very good global reputation for being able to understand advanced software.”

Luecke said the computer equipment has already arrived and the group is currently setting it up. An open house will be held at the beginning of spring semester, he said.

“All ISU research faculty and their research students will have access to this powerful computer if the faculty member contributes to our ongoing efforts to provide powerful, high-performance computers to ISU,” Luecke said.