The instrumentation requested in this proposal consists of a Convex C210 mini-supercomputer and a Stellar GS-1025-80-00 graphics and image display workstation. These instruments will be integrated into the existing baseband Ethernet network of multiple Digital Equipment Corporation VAXstation and Sun workstation computers within the Biomedical Engineering and Mathematics Curriculum of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The combined Advanced Biomedical Computing and Display Facility will enhance the research of eight investigators representing eight presently funded NIH grants and proposals and one grant presently funded by industry. The requested mini-supercomputer will become the central computation unit for research projects which require extensive and lengthy vector calculations and for projects requiring faster scalar processing or more memory than that available from our existing workstation computers. Also this will release the workstations to serve as points for data entry to the mini-supercomputer and for other research and educational activities which involve less intensive computations. The requested graphics and image display workstation will be integrated with the mini-supercomputer and the existing network and will provide state-of-the-art methods for presenting multidimensional graphics and image data. These capabilities are required for visualization of intermediate data and for presenting final results. Using the X-Windows standard, the existing workstations will be used for less demanding display applications. The proposed distributed computing facility is the most cost effective way to support and enhance the scope and progress of the NIH funded projects and to catalyze multidisciplinary collaboration in biomedical engineering research within the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
