When Jason Moore 1 came to Vanderbilt University in 1999 as a professor in the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, he knew that he needed a parallel computer (a computer with more than one central processing unit, used for parallel processing) to conduct his research. His research involved the statistical analysis of genetics, specifically the study of gene-gene interactions and the implications for disease risk. The work he wanted to do would require computational power that

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... d be provided only with high-performance computing (HPC).* The first step he took toward this goal was to apply to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center for a Vanderbilt University discovery grant. 2 This program was a mechanism to stimulate the development of new ideas and allow investigators to develop them for future external federal funding. He received $50,000 to build a parallel computer. Instead of simply starting work on building a system, he decided to find out if any other researchers at Vanderbilt were working on developing a parallel computer. After talking to other researchers from all over the campus, he discovered that Paul Sheldon, 3 a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, had done more work than anyone else in this area. Paul's area of research was elementary particle physics and the study of the physics of heavy quarks. He had worked on the development of a workstation farm called Vanderbilt University physics analysis cluster (VUPAC). 4 A workstation farm is a cluster of workstations loosely coupled to provide a very coarse parallel computing environment. Initial support for VUPAC was provided by a National Science Foundation (NSF) academic research infrastructure grant with matching funds from Vanderbilt University. Additional funding by the NSF and the Department of Energy later facilitated upgrades, administration, and maintenance. Jason and Paul decided to work together and develop a shared resource which they called Vanderbilt multiprocessor integrated research engine (VAMPIRE). 5 Paul remembers: "Jason and I quickly realized that we pretty much wanted to do the same things. We had similar goals and similar amounts of money to do it. Basically, it was a meeting of the minds, and we realized [that working together] was the right way to do it. It was an interesting thing to try." Additional funding for the project was provided by a second Vanderbilt University discovery grant and from the startup funds of 92 * This type of computing requires scientific workstations, supercomputer systems, high speed networks, a new generation of large-scale parallel systems, and application and systems software with all components well integrated and linked over a high-speed network.