WALTHAM, Mass., May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Researchers at Australia's top neuroscience research labs and universities are using a new parallel supercomputing system to help unravel the mysteries of the brain to fight disease.
With the help of Interactive Supercomputing Inc.'s (ISC's) Star-P(TM) software, scientists at the Howard Florey Institute, Flinders University and University of Queensland will soon be able to rapidly analyze large magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) datasets that may someday reveal correlations between brain structure and conditions such as ADHD, Alzheimer's, auditory hallucinations and primal urges (e.g. thirst).
The technology will help accelerate neuroimaging research that is becoming more computationally demanding owing to the growing data volumes and the complexity of the processing algorithms. Star-P is an interactive parallel computing platform that lets researchers write applications on desktop computers using The MathWorks' MATLAB(R), and run them interactively on a multi-processor SGI(R) Altix(R) Server with a large shared memory resource. This eliminates the need to re-program the applications in C, FORTRAN or MPI languages to run on the parallel computer (although Star-P's extensible framework also allows easy plug-in of existing compiled language parallel algorithm code).
MATLAB is a popular tool in neuroimaging, making Star-P particularly well suited for this discipline. For the first time, numerous international scientists working on the project can now easily tap the power of parallel high performance computers to solve computational problems in a fraction of the time.
According to Dr. Neil Killeen of the Howard Florey Institute, researchers use MATLAB for image data analysis (production analysis and algorithm development) as well as a range of simulation and modeling activities. However, as projects become more ambitious, generating larger data sets and requiring more complex computations, the computational power of MATLAB desktops is becoming insufficient. Porting applications (be they interpreted or compiled languages) to a parallel HPC environment is a specialized activity, and one which many neuroscience environments do not have access to.
"Star-P allows us to continue to work with our preferred desktop tools while transparently running the algorithms on a parallel HPC server. This allows us to extract maximum scientific value from both our neuroimaging data analysis and just as importantly our theoretical simulation and modeling work. It gives us the best of both computing worlds," said Dr. Killeen.
About The Howard Florey Institute
The Howard Florey Institute is Australia's leading brain research center. Its scientists deliver research outcomes that can be developed into drugs to combat brain disorders, and into new medical practices that will improve life for people all over the world. The Florey's research areas cover a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders including Parkinson's disease, stroke, motor neurone disease, addiction, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and dementia. For more information about the Howard Florey Institute visit http://www.hfi.unimelb.edu.au
About Interactive Supercomputing
Interactive Supercomputing (ISC) launched in 2004 to commercialize Star-P, an interactive parallel computing platform. With automatic parallelization and interactive execution of existing desktop simulation applications, Star-P merges two previously distinct environments -- desktop computers and high performance servers -- into one. Based in Waltham, Mass., the privately held company markets Star-P for a range of security, intelligence, manufacturing, energy, biomedical, financial, and scientific research applications.
Contacts: Ilya Mirman Michelle Dillon Interactive Supercomputing Beaupre & Co. Public Relations 781-419-0010 603-559-5835 imirman@interactivesupercomputing.commdillon@beaupre.com Merrin Rafferty University of Melbourne m.rafferty@hfi.unimeld.edu.au
Interactive Supercomputing Inc.CONTACT: Ilya Mirman of Interactive Supercomputing, +1-781-419-0010,imirman@interactivesupercomputing.com; or Michelle Dillon of Beaupre & Co.Public Relations, +1-603-559-5835, mdillon@beaupre.com; or Merrin Raffertyof University of Melbourne, m.rafferty@hfi.unimeld.edu.au
