Research Centers Acquire SGI Altix and Silicon Graphics Prism Visualization
Systems
HOUSTON, SEG Booth #1030, Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Norsk Hydro
ASA, a long-time customer of Silicon Graphics (OTC: SGID) again selected
SGI(R) technology to expand its national and international oil exploration
efforts as well as for a number of research projects. To perform seismic
acoustic tomography and migration velocity analysis to determine optimal oil
well drilling sites, Norsk Hydro's facility in Bergen, Norway, selected a
large, shared-memory SGI(R) Altix(R) system. For its research center in the
port city of Porsgrunn, Norsk Hydro acquired an SGI Altix for computational
fluid dynamics applications and a Silicon Graphics Prism(TM) visualization
system.
Norsk Hydro's research center in Bergen is developing and testing
different methods of imaging and working on a large variety of technical
services for oil and gas production. In addition to data sets of the North
Sea, the energy company is exploring Eurasia and Angola; data from Libya has
recently arrived. For its continued international expansion, Norsk Hydro
selected an SGI(R) Altix(R) 3700 Bx2, with 40 Intel(R) Itanium(R) 2 processors
and 96GB memory; it is connected to their CAVE, with a virtual reality (VR)
environment originally designed on SGI systems and now available as a VR
software package from Schlumberger. The CAVE runs on a previously purchased
Silicon Graphics(R) Onyx(R) 3000 visualization system with five graphics
pipes. Installed in May, the SGI Altix system is currently running Paradigm
GeoDepth(R) tools for 3D tomography and migration velocity analysis on data
acquired in the Gulf of Mexico.
Almost exactly the same process as X-ray tomography performed in medical
centers for diagnostic purposes, seismic acoustic tomography is a process
where sound is sent into water and the sounds that are bounced back from
multi-layered complex earth model blocks indicate many seismic properties
important to oil exploration, such as velocities, porosities and fluid
saturation.
"Tomography requires very big matrixes and a machine with not just big
memory, but with shared-memory, and this is why we have the Altix," said Jan
Pajchel, principal geophysicist, Norsk Hydro, in Bergen. "With the SGI
shared-memory architecture, we are not forced to divide our migration velocity
cube to sub-volumes. Sub-volumes always make the solution unstable because the
more you divide the data, the harder it is to match it up again for an
accurate image. With the Gulf of Mexico data on the Alitx, we are producing
cubes of some 30 by 20 by 15 kilometers, because the Gulf is so deep, and our
data sets range from 300 to 500GB. I save quite a lot of input-output time
with the big, shared-memory of the Altix because I can do migration analysis
simultaneously for several big slices or on a bigger cube faster than ever
before. We are very satisfied with the results from the Altix. This is a very
important machine for geophysicists today."
The seismic cubes produced on the SGI Altix are delivered to Norsk Hydro's
CAVE where data can be interpreted by multidisciplinary teams for use in
optimal construction of 3D well trajectories, improving oil and gas recovery.
In addition to the SGI Altix 3700 Bx2 in use at Bergen, Norsk Hydro in
Porsgrunn purchased an SGI Altix 3700 with 128GB memory and 96 Intel Itanium 2
processors running the Linux(R) environment, an SGI(R) InfiniteStorage TP900
system with eight 146GB drives, and a Silicon Graphics Prism(TM) visualization
system with 8 Intel Itanium 2 processors running Red Hat Enterprise 3 Linux
and SGI(R) Advanced Linux Environment ProPack(TM), eight graphics pipes, 16GB
memory, and two 146GB SCSI hard drives.
The Silicon Graphics Prism system is used to run various virtual reality
(VR) simulations, including large-scale geometry, displaying walk-throughs of
existing installations, design reviews of new onshore and offshore facilities,
and general presentation of complex experimental and computational data. Norsk
Hydro's Research Centre in Porsgrunn is developing new software in
collaboration with Statoil, called VR Safety, on the Silicon Graphics Prism
system. This software will be used to visualize and train both onshore and
offshore personnel in handling emergency situations, such as an oil or gas
leak or fire. The Silicon Graphics Prism visualization system is connected to
a TAN(R) Holospace, a corner space of 525 x 240 x 240 meters with screens on
the walls and floor.
"We purchased the Silicon Graphics Prism system because we already had the
Holospace, and, from what we determined, it's the only system that can drive
the VR space and the size of the datasets that we are beginning to work on
now," said Eirik Manger, principal engineer, Norsk Hydro Porsgrunn. "The
Silicon Graphics Prism was selected because we believe that it is the best
system we can get. With the SGI Altix, we went for a shared multiprocessor
system because the talent and the performance of an SMP system is superior,
and that's the most important thing for us, to be able to run both relatively
small as well as large jobs faster."
The Research Centre in Porsgrunn uses the SGI Altix system to run large
computational fluid dynamics problems and other calculations in datasets
ranging up to 20 to 30GB at present. Data is currently visualized in the
Holospace using COVISE software from VISENSO.
"Norsk Hydro joins the ranks of many leading energy exploration companies
that are able to accelerate their seismic processing and seismic
interpretation workflows with the affordable, scalable, Linux-based systems
from SGI," said Michael Brown, energy segment manager, SGI. "The increased
performance, accuracy and productivity that Norsk Hydro has achieved with SGI
Altix and Silicon Graphics Prism systems allows them to stay ahead in the ever
changing oil and gas industry."
SILICON GRAPHICS | The Source of Innovation and Discovery(TM)
SGI, also known as Silicon Graphics, Inc. (OTC: SGID), is a leader in
high-performance computing, visualization and storage. SGI's vision is to
provide technology that enables the most significant scientific and creative
breakthroughs of the 21st century. Whether it's sharing images to aid in brain
surgery, finding oil more efficiently, studying global climate, providing
technologies for homeland security and defense or enabling the transition from
analog to digital broadcasting, SGI is dedicated to addressing the next class
of challenges for scientific, engineering and creative users. With offices
worldwide, the company is headquartered in Mountain View, Calif., and can be
found on the Web at http://www.sgi.com.
NOTE: Silicon Graphics, SGI, Altix, Onyx, the SGI cube and the SGI logo
are registered trademarks and ProPack, Silicon Graphics Prism and The Source
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