Vanderbilt has an extensive suite of test and characterization equipment for radiation-effects analysis, including an ARACOR 10-keV X-ray irradiator, two CS-137 isotopic irradiators, and a 2-MeV proton source. Vanderbilt team members have extensive experience conducing single-event tests at facilities including Brookhaven National Laboratory, Michigan State University and Indiana University. An array of test equipment is available to facilitate the characterization of irradiated devices and ICs. Vanderbilt also has in place a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with NAVSEA-Crane that provides access to a suite of radiation sources and a fully equipped parts analysis laboratory. Vanderbilt's Advanced Computing Center for Research and Education (ACCRE) houses VAMPIRE, a Beowulf cluster supercomputer used to execute Vanderbilt's Technology Computer Aided Design (TCAD) suite and the particle interaction simulator based on GEANT4. Currently, the majority of the nodes (~200) are dual 2.0 GHz Xeon and Opteron processors. Expansion to 1200 processors by mid-2005 is underway.
Ronald D. Schrimpf, professor of electrical engineering and director of ISDE, is working with the "VAMPIRE" supercomputer, the Vanderbilt Multiprocessor Integrated Research Engine. This is a large-scale cluster of personal computers used by Vanderbilt researchers in a wide range of academic disciplines for high-performance computing.
(Photo courtesy of Vanderbilt Engineering News, Daniel DuBois photographer.)
Vanderbilt University RER Laboratory
