Cutting-edge laboratories enable
researchers to make major scientific breakthroughs at King Abdullah University of
Science and Technology (KAUST). Other research institutions in the Kingdom and the
region will link to KAUST’s supercomputer and other laboratory facilities through
the 10 gigabytes per second (Gbps) Saudi Arabian Advanced Research and Education
Network (SAREN).
Supercomputer: Shaheen — the Arabic word for
peregrine falcon — is the fastest supercomputer in the Middle East and one
of the most powerful in the world. Developed with IBM, it is capable of 222 teraflops,
or 222 trillion floating point operations per second. In non-technical language,
this means Shaheen can solve 222 trillion complicated calculations per second.
- 16–rack IBM Blue Gene/P System providing 65,536 processor cores.
- Next-generation data center with scalability to achieve exascale computing requirements.
- High-performance storage and networking subsystems to support double precision
peak performance with 64 terabytes of aggregate memory capacity.
- Petaflop capability within the next two to three years, with scalability for future
demands.
- A storage subsystem composed of multiple storage building blocks providing 1.9
petabytes (one quadrillion bytes) of raw capacity and an aggregate bandwidth of
16 Gbps.
Visualization: CORNEA is a fully immersive, six-sided virtual reality
facility that gives students and researchers the ability to turn data into 3D structures
that they can interact with and examine. It was built in partnership with the University
of California, San Diego.
- A Mechdyne-built VL6 with the world’s highest resolution (100 million pixels)
and brightest (10,000 lumens) visualization environments.
- 24 Quad HD Projectors, the highest native resolution projectors available at 4096x2160
pixels each.
- An advanced spatial/surround sound audio system that adapts to match visual images
- the only known research center of this type in the world.
- A multi-purpose room with a 32 million pixel digital cinema projection system
that enables stereoscopic viewing for 75 people.
Nanofabrication, Imaging, and Characterization: A clean-room environment
equipped with leading-edge tools to support research in advanced materials, biotechnology,
electronics and photonics, and MEMS/NEMS. The Imaging and Characterization Labs
include a suite of 10 advanced nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectrometers and
facilities for scanning, transmission, confocal, and Raman microscopy, magnetic
and thermal measurements, allowing scientists to examine nanostructure devices and
surfaces down to the level of individual atoms.
Coastal and Marine Resources: Located next to the
Red Sea, the Coastal and Marine Resources Lab facilitates marine research. The facility
builds and deploys modern oceanographic instrumentation and provides operational
services to support research vessels for marine exploration, diving, and sampling.
Indoor and outdoor seawater facilities allow researchers to culture marine organisms.
Analytical Core: These labs boast highly skilled staff focusing
on spectroscopy, chromatography and mass spectrometry, trace metals analysis, wet
chemistry, and surface analysis.
Biosciences and Bioengineering: These facilities include genomic
and proteomic labs essential to the study of cellular molecules for DNA sequencing
and genetic analysis, as well as the investigation of cellular processes. The genomics
facility is equipped with robots and laboratory automation.