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The National Petascale Computing Facility

This 88,000-square-foot facility houses computing, networking, and data systems that benefit researchers at Illinois and across the country.

  • Offers top-flight physical and cybersecurity, including monitoring of all exit bandwidth, deep packet inspection and tracking of network flows. All equipment in the facility must comply with cybersecurity and operational standards.
  • Takes advantage of the campus’ highly reliable electrical supply, chilled water distribution system and thermal storage
  • Has a limited UPS system for NCSA’s mass storage system and other selected equipment
  • Provides 1-, 10-, 40- and 100-gigabit Ethernet high-performance connections as required with up to 440-gigabit Ethernet external network connectivity
  • Achieved Gold Certification in the  U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating system, which is the recognized standard for measuring sustainability in construction
  • Uses three on-site cooling towers to provide water chilled by Mother Nature a large part of the year, reducing the amount of chilled water the building draws from the campus chilled water loop
  • Reduces power conversion losses by running 480-volt AC power to compute systems
  • Operates continually at the high end of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers standards, meaning the data center will not be overcooled. Equipment must be able to operate with a 65°F (18°C) inlet water temperature and a 78°F (25°C) inlet air temperature.

Parking

The closest parking is in Lot E-14 across Oak Street. Illinois staff who have parking passes can park anywhere in this lot while guests can use the metered spots on the west edge of the lot just north of the petascale facility.

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