CENTER FOR COMPUTATION & TECHNOLOGY

The Biz Network, New Orleans By Lindsay Young NEW ORLEANS — Apple Corp. and Louisiana State University’s Center for Computation and Technology today unveiled Nemeaux, a supercomputer that links art with technology. Nemeaux (pronounced Nemo) is one of few supercomputers anywhere to focus on the arts, said Stephen Beck, director of the Laboratory for Creative Arts and Technologies, a division of CCT in Baton Rouge. LSU bought Nemeaux, a cluster of 24 Apple Xserve G5 machines, with a $114,000 grant from the Louisiana Board of Regents. “We think it will help us recruit faculty and students who are interested in doing these kinds of things,” Beck said. Beck said the supercomputer can do many jobs in a matter of minutes that used to take hours, including the creation of complex creative or scientific images. For example, a scientist can tap into the supercomputer to render a model of the collision of black holes or the paths of hurricanes. In addition, the supercomputer can help musicians such as Beck, a composer and professor in the LSU School of Music. He could use the computer to develop tools to better process sound. Nemeaux will help artists and musicians do better work, he said. It will also encourage researchers to push the technology forward. “We’re really trying to advance research in computational arts,” he said. Although Nemeaux’s focus will be computational arts, it will also explore scientific problems. It joins two other computers in the Center for Computation and Technology that target specific tasks and disciplines. The center’s efforts are funded largely by the Louisiana Legislature’s Information Technology Initiative.