The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) has announced a strategic partnership with Sabey Data Centers, choosing its Round Rock, Texas campus as the colocation site for Horizon, the nation’s next-generation supercomputer. This collaboration marks a significant milestone in the advancement of American computational research, with Horizon being a part of the newly established National Science Foundation (NSF)-funded Leadership-Class Computing Facility (LCCF). Set to be operational by 2026, Horizon is poised to become the largest academic supercomputer dedicated to open-scientific research within the NSF portfolio.
Meeting the Demands of Next-Generation Supercomputing
Horizon is designed to deliver a substantial performance leap, offering a tenfold improvement over its predecessor, Frontera, in simulation capabilities, and an even more remarkable hundredfold enhancement for AI applications. This leap in performance underscores Horizon’s critical role in meeting the complex computational needs of the scientific community.
Sabey’s Round Rock campus, the latest addition to its portfolio, was selected for its ability to meet the high-density requirements essential for supercomputing tasks. Upon completion, the campus will boast over 85 megawatts of critical capacity and span 430,000 square feet. Sabey has tailored the campus to support cutting-edge deployments like Horizon, integrating both liquid and air cooling systems to manage the extreme density and efficiency demands. Additionally, the facility is committed to utilizing low-cost renewable power, aligning with sustainability goals.
A Collaborative Partnership
Dan Stanzione, executive director of TACC, expressed excitement about the partnership, highlighting the synergy between TACC’s needs for advanced, high-density supercomputing and Sabey’s capabilities. He noted that the demands of AI have driven the evolution of commercial data centers to incorporate features typical of supercomputing facilities, such as liquid cooling and high-efficiency systems. Stanzione emphasized that this partnership not only addresses TACC’s immediate needs but also paves the way for future collaboration with the private sector.
“We are thrilled to partner with TACC on Horizon, providing the robust infrastructure required for this groundbreaking supercomputer,” said Mark Noonan, Senior Vice President of Revenue for Sabey Data Centers and UT Austin graduate. He added that Sabey’s innovative design, which combines both liquid and air cooling, enables the campus to support Horizon’s extreme densities while also achieving sustainability goals.
Horizon and the Future of U.S. Supercomputing
The LCCF is designed as a distributed project, collaborating with four science centers across the United States to leverage their expertise in the nation’s cyberinfrastructure ecosystem. Horizon will be equipped with specialized accelerators to advance AI research and general-purpose processors to support diverse scientific inquiries. Additionally, the LCCF will offer large-scale data storage and interactive computing capabilities, ensuring broad access to cutting-edge resources for scientists and engineers nationwide.
Sabey Data Centers’ selection as the colocation partner for Horizon showcases its reputation for delivering scalable and sustainable data center solutions, capable of supporting some of the most demanding technological advancements in the world.
Sabey Data Centers Austin is located at 1300 Louis Henna Blvd in Round Rock, TX.
For more information about Sabey Data Centers and their SDC Austin campus, please visit https://sabeydatacenters.com.
For more information about TACC and how this partnership will drive the future of supercomputing, visit https://tacc.utexas.edu.
