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National Center for Supercomputing Applications Turns 25

Story air date: Tuesday, March 01, 2011

The Intel 64 Cluster Abe is one of the NCSA Supercomputers.

The foundation for many of the world’s most powerful computers is housed at the University of Illinois. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) started 25 years ago using computer systems like the Cray X-MP/24. Back then it was an industry standard, but it doesn’t even come close to the processing speeds of today’s models. The center set another world standard by releasing Mosaic, a pre-cursor to the web browser. The NCSA marks its 25th anniversary this year, and Illinois Public Media’s Sean Powers spoke to the center’s director Thom Dunning about the organization’s contributions to science and technology.

(Photo courtesy of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications)