University of Alabama Builds Statewide High Performance Computing Center with Dell Technologies

Story Highlights

• The University of Alabama’s new High Performance Computing Center will provide advanced computing and data infrastructure to accelerate research and education across Alabama
• Dell PowerEdge servers, NVIDIA AI infrastructure and Dell AI storage will support HPC, AI and data-intensive research across fields, including water resource management, materials and manufacturing, health, national security and quantum computing
• Designed as a shared resource for academic, government and industry partners, the center will help drive economic growth and workforce development statewide

ROUND ROCK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dell Technologies announced that The University of Alabama (UA) is deploying Dell high performance computing (HPC), AI and data infrastructure at the core of its new High Performance Computing Center.

The facility, funded in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will provide large-scale computing, accelerated AI and research data infrastructure designed to grow with the needs of researchers across Alabamaⁱ. The center will serve the University of Alabama System while creating opportunities for collaboration with other academic institutions, government agencies and industry partners throughout the state.

Why it matters

Researchers increasingly depend on advanced computing and large datasets to address problems in areas ranging from water resource management and materials science to health, national security and AI. The new center will give Alabama researchers access to computing capabilities that have historically been available primarily through national laboratories and major federal computing facilities.

The center will support traditional scientific simulation alongside AI, machine learning and data-intensive research. It will also provide computing infrastructure for UA's new School of Data Science and support education and workforce development across disciplines, preparing students and researchers to apply advanced computing to real-world challenges.

Dell infrastructure for HPC and AI

The new environment combines Dell PowerEdge servers with NVIDIA AI infrastructure, connected with high-speed NVIDIA Quantum-2 InfiniBand networking and Dell AI Data Platform file storage (Dell PowerScale).

Dell PowerEdge servers will support general-purpose and scientific computing with NVIDIA CUDA-X libraries. Dell PowerEdge R770 and XE7740 systems equipped with NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Server Edition and NVIDIA H200 NVL GPUs will provide accelerated computing for simulation, AI, machine learning and other data-intensive workloads.

Dell PowerScale will provide scalable storage for the large research datasets, scientific images and other unstructured data generated and used by researchers - a critical foundation for AI-driven discovery - while Dell HPC Deployment Services will support implementation of the overall AI-ready environment, bringing advanced computing capabilities to researchers more quickly.

The project builds on a relationship between Dell Technologies and the University of Alabama spanning more than two decades.

Perspectives

“This center started with a need for advanced computing at the University of Alabama, but the investment from the State of Alabama gave us an opportunity to think much bigger,” said Fernanda Foertter, executive director of the University of Alabama High Performance Computing Center. “We are building shared infrastructure that can support researchers, students, government and industry across the state. Our goal is to make advanced computing easier to access and useful to the people solving Alabama's most important research and technology problems.”

“The University of Alabama is building shared research infrastructure for an entire state," said Fran Bogle, senior vice president, Higher Education, Healthcare, State & Local Government, Dell Technologies. "This platform - combining HPC, AI and data infrastructure - gives researchers across Alabama the foundation for discovery, industry collaboration and long-term economic development, with the flexibility to evolve with advancements in science.”

About Dell Technologies

Dell Technologies (NYSE: DELL) helps organizations and individuals build their digital future and transform how they work, live and play. The company provides customers with the industry's broadest and most innovative technology and services portfolio for the AI era.

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^i The facility is supported in part by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), under Federal Award No. 60NANB23D149. More information is available at: https://hpc.ua.edu/.