“Conoco announced it has achieved a technological and
competitive milestone in seismic exploration, with the installation
of the largest and most powerful Intel-based geophysical computer
available in today’s petroleum industry. Conoco’s new supercomputer
— considered to be among the most powerful supercomputers
worldwide — is part of the company’s state-of-the-art in-house
seismic data processing system.”
“The new supercomputer integrates cost-effective Intel chip
technology, the Linux operating system, advanced tape robotics and
10 terabytes of massive hard-disk storage — enough to hold the
entire U.S. Library of Congress — with Conoco’s leading-edge
proprietary seismic processing software….”
“The supercomputer and its accompanying disk farm are located in
Conoco’s seismic computing facility in Ponca City, Okla. However,
the machine is designed so that it can be accessed from almost any
Conoco location. Sub-clusters can be placed in any office location
or aboard offshore seismic vessels worldwide to allow real-time
processing of seismic data during the field acquisition stage. In
order to allow flexible remote use in the new internet-driven
computing era, Conoco has re-engineered its leading-edge seismic
processing software to operate in the Linux system with an
XML-compatible, JAVA-based user interface.”
“Conoco believes that the future of geophysical computing
lies in the new Intel cluster architecture and the Linux operating
system; and we have merged these technologies with our own software
to achieve a milestone in the seismic field,” Dr. Huffman
added. “Ultimately, these innovations will improve our reservoir
management and assist other disciplines where advanced computing is
critical to our ability to do certain types of analysis.”