That's how Mark Harris of the University of Cincinnati describes the capabilities of the region's only Onyx supercomputer, now housed in UC's Computer Graphics Center . Applications range from incredibly realistic molecular modeling and ocean current simulations to air pollution modeling. He added that the gift comes to the university because UC has a long track record for first-class training of future designers. You need a super powerful computer to train tomorrow's auto designers. UC has a history as such with its longstanding relationships with auto designers.
Designers have large data files that only the fastest computers can handle.
Anyone from Detroit could sit down at UC and not feel displaced. You can rotate it, switch on the lights, look under the hood. Bruce Aronow, associate professor and director of UC's Genome Informatics Research Core, explained that he hopes to use the Onyx and the visualization lab to put students and researchers right in the middle of the protein structures they study in order to better understand how molecules function and how that function may be affected by structural mutations. The new super hardware is a gift both to UC students and faculty and to regional industry, explained Harris. UC's engineering and design students routinely spend alternate quarters on cooperative education assignments around the globe.